| July 2006 |
 |
| Microsoft continues to grow, and its effects can be felt all around Seattle and the surrounding area |
|
In June, Bill Gates announced his intention to retire from day-to-day work at Microsoft in 2008, giving residents of Seattle and environs a couple of years to think about just how much they owe the bespectacled nerd from the nice side of Lake Washington. If Microsoft had never existed, Seattle might still be Jet City, with its future dependent solely on Boeing. Luckily that's not how things turned out.
In 2005, a study of the economic impact of technology-based Washington businesses was commissioned by Washington's Technology Alliance. Its conclusion: almost 1.2 million jobs in the state are linked to technology-based industries. That's 45 % of all jobs.
|
|
And memories of the dot-com bust are fading. May marked the 34th consecutive month of job growth in Washington, according to the state's Employment Security Department.
A study done for the Washington Alliance of Technology (an offshoot of the national CWA union) finds that Seattle is one of the real IT bright spots in the U.S., with February 2006 IT employment levels surpassing the highs of March 2001, when the dot-com bust started claiming its victims. Jobs are especially prevalent in the software sector. They account for 31% of all tech jobs according to the Puget Sound Regional Council. Given Microsoft's prominence, that finding is hardly surprising.
Further encouraging news comes from IT staffing consultancy Robert Half Technology, whose third-quarter IT Hiring Index finds that a net 17% of Seattle CIOs plan to make new hires this quarter. That's the highest percentage of any major American metropolitan area.
And at Dice.com, the number of Seattle region job listings rose 2% in the second quarter, from 1,998 in March to 2,032 in June.
|
|
| 17% of Seattle CIOs plan to make new hires this quarter. That's the highest percentage of any major American Metropolitan area. |
| - Robert Half Technology's third-quarter IT Hiring Index |
|
Microsoft is the second-largest employer in the Seattle region (Boeing, something of a technology company itself, is still number one), employing more than 30,000 people. It plans to add more than 2,000 jobs this year in the U.S., most of which will be at the company’s headquarters in Redmond, the Washington Technology Alliance says that Microsoft intends to spend $1 billion over the next three years to accommodate 12,000 more employees worldwide.
Meanwhile, the quarterly Manpower Employment Outlook Survey has found that 19% of the companies interviewed plan to hire more employees in the third quarter, according to Manpower spokesperson Jim Nelson.
In all, more than 40,000 people are employed by software and IT companies in King County. The majority, of course, are at Microsoft's sprawling campus. And if the past is any indication, some of those employees will eventually retire from Microsoft only to set out on their own, creating all sorts of new technology companies in the area.
And why not? The region's quality of life is renowned, but so is its business climate for technology ventures. Just look at the numbers. A full 83% of Seattle homes have at least one computer, and almost all those homes are online, surpassing the national average by 21%. Ernst & Young and VentureOne rank Washington in the top five out of all states for venture capital investment. The U.S. Census Bureau says Seattle is the “most educated city in the U.S.” with 48% of the population obtaining a bachelor’s degree and 19.2% holding a post graduate degree. And Washington ranks in the top five as the friendliest for small business, according to the Small Business Survival Guide. A total of 50,400 jobs were added in King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties in 2005, representing 67% of all statewide employment gains since 2004.
So if high-tech enthusiasm ever flagged in Seattle, it seems to have returned with a buzz as strong as a steaming mug of Starbucks.
|
|
|
|
|
| Dice job postings in Seattle are up 13% since Dec. |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
