It may be a tougher environment for the average IT job seeker these days, but many cities in the U.S. showed a net rise in technology jobs in the latest available figures.
A survey by the AeA, a technology trade group, found that at least 51 of 60 cities had a net gain in high-tech jobs in 2006 compared to 2005. The AeA, formerly known as the American Electronics Association, examined the high-tech industry in the nation’s largest metropolitan areas by analyzing the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Seattle was the top city, gaining 7,800 high-tech jobs. The New York and Washington, D.C., metro areas came in second and third with the addition of more than 6,000 jobs apiece. The San Jose/Silicon Valley area added about 5,900 jobs, while Houston and Boston increased their high-tech jobs by about 4,100 each.
In addition, San Jose/Silicon Valley had the highest, per-capita concentration of tech workers. Boulder, Colo., and Hunstville, Ala., were second and third, respectively. Durham, N.C., and Washington D.C. rounded out the top five.
More than one in four of San Jose/Silicon Valley's private-sector jobs were tech jobs, AeA says. Specifically, nearly 30 percent of the area’s private sector workers are employed by the technology industry. A heavy presence of semiconductor companies, computer system design firms - including software services - helped.
Twenty three percent of Boulder's workforce worked in high tech during 2006. Research and development testing and computer system design are two of the dominant sectors in the region. “The tech industry dominates the area,” says Matthew Kazmierczak, AeA's vice president of research and industry analysis.
Hunstville's high concentration of tech workers stems is attributed largely to NASA's research center there, with engineering services, computer systems design and computer and peripheral equipment manufacturing make up the area’s leading high-tech sectors. In Durham, research and development labs make up a large portion of the tech industry. And in Washington, computer systems design is a major part of the tech scene.
Strong Percentage Growth
On a percentage basis, the Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif., area showed the fastest high-tech job growth in 2006 - 12 percent from 2005's levels. Durham experienced an 8.4 percent growth rate, while Salt Lake City increased its tech employment by 7.2 percent. Las Vegas and Seattle both experienced growth of about 7 percent.
The last time the AeA published a Cybercities report was in 2000, before the dot-com bubble burst. The organization researched topics such as wages, establishments, payrolls, and employment concentration and wage differentials. For instance, the AeA found that 56 of the cities examined had wage differentials - a comparison of the average high-tech salary to the private sector wage - that were higher than 50 percent.
Three cities had wage differentials that were more than 100 percent. The average salary of a high-tech worker in Austin, Texas, was more than $100,000. The average private-sector worker made $47,200. A San Diego high-tech employee had an average salary of $92,300 compared to the average $45,100 private sector wage. Sacramento's high-tech workers average $83,500 in salary, compared to $41,400 for private sector employees.
Bridgeport, Conn., had the lowest wage differential between high-tech and private sector workers. There, tech employees averaged $90,200 in wages, while private sector workers made $77,800.
Notes Kazmierczak: “With the exception of Oklahoma City, the bottom 10 all had the same thing in common. They tended to be high-wage environments.”
Sonia R. Lelii can be reached at sonia.lelii@dice.com
More information is in the Dice Local Market Reports.
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