Cybercities 2008 report by AEA ranks high-tech US metros news
26 June 2008

Silicon Valley, New York and Washington retained their positions as top centresin the US for high-tech employment, the Cybercities 2008 report published by the American Electronics Association (AEA). The report also said that heavy concentrations of tech-industry workers can be found in cities like Boulder, Colorado.; Huntsville, Alabama, and Durham, North Carolina.

In its first Cybercities report since 2000, the AEA notes that 51 of the top 60 metropolitan areas in the US added high-tech jobs during 2006, which the group described as a sign of the industry's steady growth. In a statement, the association's CEO Christopher Hansen said, "These are the types of jobs every city wants."

Metro New York was the top tech employer in the US, with 316,500 of the roughly 5.8 million US tech workers as per 2006 figures, the report said. Washington, DC, was next with 295,800, and the San Jose / Silicon Valley area of Northern California, with 225,300. Combined with San Francisco and Oakland, the wider Bay Area, long known as the world's ''tech mecca'' and home mega-tech corporations Intel and Oracle, topped the Big Apple with more than 386,000 workers. In terms of concentration, San Jose/Silicon Valley was on top with roughly 285.9 of every 1,000 private-sector tech workers. Boulder was number two, with 230.5, followed by Huntsville, with 188.5, and Durham, with 155.9.

The Riverside-San Bernardino area in Southern California posted the biggest growth in tech employment from 2005 to 2006, increasing 11.5 per cent, followed by Durham, at 8.4 per cent, and Salt Lake City, with 7.2 per cent.

Tech workers in the San Jose/Silicon Valley area were the highest-paid, with an average annual salary of $144,800, followed by San Francisco, at $118,500, and Austin, Texas, at $100,500. In terms of high-tech employment concentration, Austin ranked 8th in the nation.

The average high-tech worker in Austin earned $100,500 in 2006, around 113 per cent more than that the metro area's average private sector wage.

American Electronics Association report, titled Cybercities 2008: An Overview of the High-technology Industry in the Nation's Top 60 Cities, tracks trends in tech employment, wages, payroll, employment concentration and wage differential across the country's largest cities. Overall, the tech industry employed 68,800 people in Austin in 2006, ranking it 23rd in the nation by total employment. The combined high-tech payroll in Austin in 2006 was $6.9 billion.

San Jose / Silicon Valley was the dominant area for technology manufacturing, Metro New York was prominent in the tech-service category with a number of its workers in telecommunications, Internet services, research and development, testing labs, and computer training services. Washington, DC lead in computer systems design and similar services.

Miami-Fort Lauderdale has been ranked at number 21 among 60 US metropolitan areas based on its high-tech industry employment, by a report from the American Electronics Association (AeA). The Cybercities 2008 report ranked the region at 59 for growth, with 2,700 jobs lost between 2005 and 2006.

Miami-Fort Lauderdale had around 72,900 high-tech workers during 2006, with the average tech worker earning $66,600 per annum during 2006, or 61 per cent higher than the average private sector wage of $41,300. Telecommunications services was the leading tech sector in the region, with 17,400 jobs in 2006, ranking 10th nationwide.

Following telecommunications was engineering services, with 15,300 jobs in 2006, constituting an jump of 900 jobs from the previous year.

In a statement, AEA Florida Council executive director Maryann Fiala said, "Miami-Fort Lauderdale's high-tech industry employs nearly four per cent of the area's private sector workforce. These are exactly the type of jobs we should be working to retain and attract, but between 2001 and 2006, over 11,000 high-tech jobs were lost. In order to reverse this downward trend, we must insist that the region and the state become more competitive by increasing the skills of our workforce by focusing on math and science education both at the K-12 level and in our universities.''


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Cybercities 2008 report by AEA ranks high-tech US metros