WASHINGTON – The technology industry in the Providence-Fall River-New Bedford metropolitan area is ranked among the nation’s strongest, employing 39.62 of every 1,000 local workers, in the American Electronics Association’s new Cybercities report.
The metro area was No. 2 nationwide for the proportional change in high-tech wages, which grew 15.0 percent from 2001 to 2006. Over the same period, tech wages surged 20.8 percent in the No. 1 Cybercity, California’s San Jose-Silicon Valley region. Boston was No. 22 with an increase of 8.6 percent, while Hartford was No. 58 with a decline of 5.8 percent. Meanwhile, U.S. private-sector wages grew 3.0 percent, or $1,246, the AeA said.
On a dollar basis, the region was No. 6 – behind San Jose-Silicon Valley, Austin, Boulder and Los Angeles, whose increases ranged from $24,962 to $9,448 – as the average pay for a tech worker in metro Providence rose $9,400 from 2001 to 2006. Boston was No. 11 with an increase of $7,480, and Hartford was 58th with a $4,386 decline.
The Providence area was No. 8 for the 2006 differential between the average private-sector wage of $37,783 and average high-tech pay, which was 91 percent higher at $72,165. Metro Boston came in at No. 41, with a differential of 65 percent; Hartford was 59, with a differential of 36 percent. Nationwide, the differential between high-tech and average private-sector wages was 87.4 percent.
The region was 46th for total high-tech employment in 2006, with 23,962 jobs. Greater Boston was fourth with 191,690 jobs, while Hartford was 54th with 20,017 tech positions. Nationwide, a total of 5.77 million tech jobs were reported that year.
(Because federal statistics lump all temporary workers into a single category without specifying the sector in which they work, the report includes only permanent positions, the AeA said. Like the trade group’s Cyberstates report, the new Cybercities relies on data from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Census Bureau, the National Science Foundation and the National Venture Capital Association.)
High-tech payrolls in metro Providence amounted to $1.73 billion in 2006, the 46th largest total among the 60 regions considered. Compared with 2005, that was an increase of 9.6 percent, the seventh-largest rise.
Providence ranked 36th for employment in high-tech manufacturing, including medical instruments but not including biotechnology, with 7,129 such jobs in 2006. Boston was No. 2 with 65,373 positions, while Hartford was No. 50 with 3,708.
Local manufacturing jobs included 1,127 positions in the manufacturing of measuring and control instrumentation, 693 in communications equipment, 423 in computer and peripherals, 404 in electronics components and accessories and 163 in electromedical equipment.
For high-tech services employment, metro Providence ranked 50th with 16,833 jobs, right ahead of No. 51 Hartford, with 16,309 positions. Boston was fourth with 126,317 jobs, behind No. 1 Washington, D.C., with 280,757; the New York City metro area, with 272,646; and greater Chicago, with 131,916.
Local services positions included 4,956 Providence-area jobs in computer systems design and related services, 4,828 jobs in telecommunications, 2,826 in Internet services, 2,693 in engineering services, 1,063 in software publishing, 373 in R&D and testing labs and 94 in computer training.
“AeA is concerned that future job growth will be jeopardized unless the United States prepares itself for a vastly more competitive global marketplace,” Christopher Hansen, the trade group’s president and CEO, said in a statement today accompanying the report’s release.
The issues “are caused by the negligence of our national political leaders to fund … math and science scholarships and scientific research,” Hansen said. But he stressed the importance of local leaders in ensuring quality K-to-12 education, for the good of the nation and their own communities.
The American Electronics Association, founded in 1943, is a nationwide trade association for all segments of the technology industry. For additional information – including the AeA’s 148-page report, “Cybercities 2008: An Overview of the High-tech Industry in the Nation’s Top 60 Cities” – visit www.AeAnet.org.
