The names are familiar: Boeing, Microsoft, Nordstrom, Costco, Amazon.com, Starbucks, Safeco, Washington Mutual, Weyerhaeuser. These companies call the Puget Sound region home. So do many of Washington's 6,800 technology firms, some founded by stock-rich Microsoft alumni. It's perhaps the nation's hottest hotbed of well-funded entrepreneurship.

In Forbes.com's 2007 Top States for Business survey, Washington shot up from 12th to 5th place (Virginia came out on top). "We're blessed by birth. We have an innovative spirit in the state," Gov. Christine Gregoire told Forbes. "We've made improvements to get out of the way and let innovation and creativity take over."

John Clyman, principal of Seattle-based Cascadia Labs, sees all kinds of activity in the area. "Knowledge industries including software and gaming, telecom, aerospace, health, and biotech combine to be a formidable economic force in the area, and government and business leaders recognize their importance," he says. "A major redevelopment of Seattle's South Lake Union area, spearheaded by Paul Allen's Vulcan development company, is injecting new life (and facilities to support thousands of new jobs, many in biotech and biomedical research) into a well-situated but historically underutilized neighborhood."

IT staffing consultancy Robert Half Technology's fourth-quarter IT Hiring Index says 14 percent of Seattle-area CIOs plan to make new hires this quarter. Meanwhile, the number of Seattle-based IT jobs listed on Dice has risen throughout 2007. In both the second and third quarters, the number of listings rose 9 percent. Today more than 2,500 jobs are available, almost 500 more than were listed in January.

Erik Fleischman, branch manager for Sapphire Technologies in the region, is optimistic about hiring. "In our experience the jobs with the most opportunities always seem to be the same: Oracle, Java, and .NET development," he says. Fast-growing companies that are less well known than the big guys include Seattle Genetics, Cell Therapeutics, Zango, CodeCorrect and Whitepages.com.

Statewide, Washington's largest and fastest growing sector remains software publishing, according to AeA's 2007 CyberStates report. Washington ranks second in the country in this sector, behind only California. Internet services, engineering services, and computer systems design and related services are also on the upswing. The statewide high-tech industry employs more than 156,000 people. In 2006, venture capital investments in Washington rose by 24 percent, to just over $1 billion, the fifth highest in the country.
 
"Washington's tech industry remains vibrant and growing," said David Anastasi, president and chief executive of Captaris, which produces document delivery and fax-system software, in the Cyberstates report. "Many people are aware that our software industry is one of the Evergreen State's greatest strengths, but they may not realize how fast it continues to grow."