PROVIDENCE – The Providence metropolitan area ranked 13th for high-tech job growth on the latest Cybercities 2010: The Definitive Analysis of the High Technology Industry in the Nation’s Top 60 Cities, released by TechAmerica on Wednesday.
The report examines the high-tech industry in the largest metropolitan areas, focusing on high-tech employment, wages, establishments, payroll, employment concentration and wage differential.
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Cybercities is a sister publication to the annual Cyberstates report designed to shed light on states that have multiple high-tech clusters – such as California, Florida, Texas and Ohio – and metropolitan areas that spread across several states.
Fifty-three of the 60 cybercities saw net job loss in 2009. Metro areas bucking the negative trend included Oklahoma City, Huntsville, Ala., and San Diego.
Providence ranked 44th for high-tech employment, with 25,415 jobs, 46th for high-tech employment concentration and 47th for high-tech average wage.
High-tech workers earned significantly more than other private sector workers, the report revealed. In 57 cybercities, tech industry wages were 50 percent higher than the average private sector wage, a fact that rang true in Providence, where workers boasted an average of $68,851 compared with $39,209 for all workers. The local high-tech payroll slipped by 2.9 percent, however, to $1.75 billion in 2009 from 2007.
Since 2007, Providence average high-tech wage has shrunk 2 percent from $71,089. The top wages were paid out in San Jose/Silicon Valley, where the average annual wage was $132,100 in 2009.
Providence high-tech employment fell 1 percent, dropping by 200 jobs, in 2009 from a year earlier; 45 of every 1,000 private sector workers in Providence are employed by high-tech firms.
Boston was the nation’s 4th largest cybercity by employment at 219,800 in 2009.
Nevertheless, Providence was highlighted in the report as one of the “medium cybercities” that managed to contain its job losses. When ranked among similar-sized cities, Providence ranked No. 5 for high-tech job growth nationwide. Huntsville, Ala., was the only medium city to add jobs in 2009 at No. 1; also reporting minimal losses were: Columbus, Ohio; Durham, N.C.; and Salt Lake City.
When looking at the leading sectors in Providence, computer systems design and related services added 200 jobs in 2009 from a year earlier, telecommunications services lost 100 jobs, and measuring and control instruments manufacturing remained the same.
Overall, New York was the top cybercity for tech employment, Oklahoma City for tech employment growth, San Jose/Silicon Valley for average tech wages, Tampa-St.Petersburg for tech wage growth, and for the highest concentration of tech jobs, San Jose/Silicon Valley also came out on top.
