The tech industry slightly outpaced the private sector overall in job creation during 2012, according to a new report from the TechAmerica Foundation.
Tech added 67,400 jobs in 2012, a 1.1 percent annual increase, compared with 1 percent growth for the overall economy, the foundation’s Cyberstates 2013 report says.
It’s easy to find an array of localized stories from the report, such as these from Illinois, Missouri and the D.C. area.
Some nuggets from PCWorld.com’s review of the report:
- Tech jobs made up 5.4 percent of the nation’s private-sector positions.
- Tech jobs paid an average of $93,800, compared with an average $47,400 in the overall economy.
- Thirty-nine states experienced a net increase in tech employment, led by California, Texas and New York.
- The top states for tech employment were California (968,800), Texas (485,600), New York (318,200), Virginia (285,400), and Florida (270,900).
- The fastest-growing tech job markets were in North Dakota, Michigan and Missouri, each with more than 3 percent growth.
- Virginia has the highest concentration of tech workers, which make up 9.8 percent of its private-sector work force.
- Tech workers in California earn the highest salaries, which averaged $123,900 in 2012, followed by Massachusetts, at $116,000, and Washington state at $110,200.
- While California dominated in 12 of 15 tech industry sectors, Minnesota ranked first in electromedical equipment manufacturing, and Washington state ranked first in software publishers.
Washington state’s high concentration of software publishers helps explain its ranking on salaries. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recently named software publishers among the industries paying the highest salaries — a mean of $91,050. Though such companies tend to be small, they hire systems software developers (a mean wage of $104,960 in the BLS report), applications software developers ($99,140), and market research analysts and marketing specialists ($88,670).
