| July 2006 |
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| San Diego sees technology as a key to future economic prosperity |
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| Where do the most wired Americans live? According to Forrester Research, of the 50 biggest American cities, San Diego is one of only two California cities in the top 10, alongside San Jose. That's a small but interesting indicator of the attitude toward technology in a city that is on the receiving end of this country's huge and inevitable demographic shift from northeast to southwest and is constantly trying to reinforce its heavily military economic base with other, more reliable growth industries. Technology certainly fits that bill.
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The good news is that according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, total employment in San Diego County has trended upwards every month since January 2003, and in the current quarter, the upward trend continues for the tech sector. IT staffing consultancy Robert Half Technology has released its third-quarter IT Hiring Index, which finds that a net 11% of San Diego CIOs plan to make new hires this quarter. Add to that the fact that 41 of the 100 fastest growing high-tech companies on the most recent Business 2.0 magazine list are located in California, and San Diego starts to look even more vibrant.
Further confirmation comes from the quarterly Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, which has found that in the third quarter, a robust 45% of the companies interviewed plan to hire more employees.
And after an especially powerful first quarter, Dice.com job tech listings in San Diego continued to rise, up 5% in the second quarter, from 1,400 in March to 1,468 in June.
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| 11% of San Diego CIOs plan to make new hires this quarter |
| - Robert Half Technology's third-quarter IT Hiring Index |
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Statewide in California, 35% of workers say that their organizations are in hiring mode, according to the most recent Hudson Employment Index, and an influx of $10.4 billion in venture capital across the state (a 25% jump from 2003) is certainly helping as well.
And AeA, the nation’s largest trade association for the high-tech industry, says in its California Cybercities 2006 report that San Diego is the state’s fourth-largest technology hub, with 99,000 tech industry workers who are paid an average annual wage of $85,200. San Diego ranks in the state’s top five by employment in 14 of the 16 high-tech industry sectors, and it’s the state’s industry leader in R&D and testing labs, with over 25,000 employees working in that arena, another excellent leading indicator of future growth in the technology space.
“Too often people only think about Silicon Valley when they equate tech and California,” says Melissa Ford, CEO of Vektrek and Chair of the AeA San Diego Council. “With 100,000 tech industry jobs and the second highest concentration of tech workers in California, this new AeA report shows that San Diego is also intricately linked to the technology industry.”
Will the technical employment comeback continue? Judging by a big boost in venture capital funding in 2005, the entire state of California can expect further solid job growth, according to AeA. Investors poured $10.4 billion into California firms in 2005, up from $10 billion in 2004 and $8.3 billion in 2003. And with San Diego so well positioned in R&D, jobs are sure to follow.
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| Dice job postings in San Diego are up 23% since Jan. |
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