51 of the Nation’s Top 60 Metropolitan Areas Add High-Tech Jobs

AeA, a trade association representing all segments of the high-tech industry, released Cybercities 2008: An Overview of the High-Technology Industry in the Nation’s Top 60 Cities. This report examines the high-tech industry in the nation’s largest metropolitan areas focusing on high-tech employment, wages, establishments, payroll, employment concentration, and wage differential.

Cybercities 2008 shows that 51 “cybercities” added high-tech jobs in 2006, according to the most recent metropolitan data available. Seattle led the nation, adding 7,800 net jobs. The next largest net gains in high-tech employment between 2005 and 2006 occurred in the New York Metro Area (+6,400) and Washington, DC (+6,100). On a percentage basis, Riverside-San Bernardino, California saw the fastest job growth in 2006 at 12 percent.

The leading metro areas by high-tech employment in 2006 were the New York Metro Area (316,500 jobs), Washington, DC (295,800 jobs), San Jose/Silicon Valley (225,300 jobs), Boston (191,700 jobs), and Dallas-Fort Worth (176,000 jobs). 2006 data are the most recent available at the metropolitan level.

San Jose/Silicon Valley led the nation in concentration of high-tech workers in 2006, with 286 high-tech workers per 1,000 private sector workers. Boulder ranked second in 2006, with 230 high-tech workers per 1,000 private sector workers. Huntsville, Durham, and Washington, DC rounded out the top five by high-tech concentration.

San Jose/Silicon Valley dominated the manufacturing sectors. It ranked near the top in seven of the nine high-tech manufacturing categories. The New York Metro Area led in many of the tech service sectors, with the highest employment in telecommunications, Internet services, R&D and testing labs, and computer training services. Washington, DC led in computer systems design and related services and engineering services, with nearly three times as many industry workers in these fields as San Jose/Silicon Valley.

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