Report ranks Boise among nation’s cybercities

According to the report Cybercities 2008: An Overview of the High-Technology Industry in the Nation’s Top 60 Cities, issued today by the country’s largest technology trade association AeA, Boise ranks 51 among the nation’s 60 metropolitan cybercities for high-tech employment.

Based on 2006 metropolitan area data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (the most current available), the 148-page Cybercities 2008 report tracked high-tech employment, wages, establishments, payroll, employment concentration and wage differential to establish rankings. Boise was one of only three cybercities in the Pacific Northwest region, along with Seattle and Portland. The report included Ada, Boise, Canyon, Gem and Owyhee counties in its assessment of Boise.

According to the report, Boise’s 20,800 high-tech workers make it 17th in the nation in high-tech employment concentration. Accounting for 9 percent of the total workforce, 71 percent are employed in high-tech manufacturing, 11 percent are in the engineering and tech services field, 10 percent work in software services and 8 percent are in communications services.

Though Boise was not among the 51 cybercities to experience total tech industry growth in 2006 – losing 2,100 tech jobs from 2001-2006 – the report shows that the 14,800-strong high-tech manufacturing sector added 600 workers between 2005 and 2006.

“Leading high-tech companies such as Micron and Hewlett-Packard along with the many smaller firms are an important part of our local economy and we need to do everything possible to grow these types of jobs, especially since they pay nearly double the area’s average private sector wage,” AeA Northwest Chapter Executive Director Terry Byington said in a Tuesday release.

Earning an average of $70,100 a year – or 91 percent more than their non-tech private sector counterparts – Boise’s high-tech workers are the 37th highest paid in the country, beating out wages in larger cities like San Antonio, Cincinnati, Albuquerque and Salt Lake City.

Though Boise’s concentration of high-tech employment is among the highest in the country, the report shows that it has among the lowest number of high-tech companies, coming in at 58 on the list with 800 firms. At the same time, those firms were responsible for $1.5 billion in payroll in 2006 – 51st in the nation.

In the Pacific Northwest region – which includes Washington, Oregon, Montana and Idaho – Seattle was, unsurprisingly, the top cybercity with 127,700 workers. It added 7,800 jobs in 2006, making it the top cybercity in terms of tech employment growth. Portland came in with 73,700 tech workers, 15th for job growth. Boise was ranked 54th.

Taking all three cities into account, 36 percent of the region’s tech industry was made up of software services, followed by high-tech manufacturing at 31 percent, 17 percent was engineering and tech services and 16 percent communications services. The Pacific Northwest ranked ninth in total high-tech employment, though came in third for wages and first for high-tech employment concentration.

Cybercities 2008 is the first such report issued by AeA since 2000, before the tech industry experienced a downturn. In the report’s foreword, AeA President and CEO Christopher Hansen said, “With the industry experiencing three consecutive years of job growth, we decided it was time again to drill down to see which cybercities are growing and across which sectors.”

The top cybercities for high-tech employment were the New York Metro Area, Washington D.C., San Jose/Silicon Valley, Boston and Dallas-Forth Worth. The bottom five were Omaha, Las Vegas, Oklahoma City, Bridgeport and Ventura.

The Cybercities 2008 report will be followed this summer by another study, Trade in the Cyberstates 2008: A State-by-State Overview of High-Tech International Trade, examining high-tech exports from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Copies of Cybercities 2008 can be purchased by AeA members for $125; non-members for $250, available online at AeA’s Web site.

For more info, see these links:

• AeA Web site

• Report download