Massachusetts ranks high as a "cyberstate"
The high technology industry in Massachusetts added 5,100 net jobs, an increase of 2 percent, in 2006, the most recent year for which data is available, and there were 87 high tech workers out of every 1,000 private-sector workers in the Bay State, the second highest concentration in the United States.
Those findings were contained in a report issued today by the American Electronics Association, the trade group that goes by AeA; the title of AeA's report is Cyberstates 2008: A Complete State-by-State Overview of the High-Technology Industry."
Virginia was tops in the category of having the highest concentration of high-tech workers, with 91 high-tech workers for every 1,000 private sector employees.
Other Massachusetts findings in the AeA's 11th annual Cyberstates report: The state remained in sixth place in regards to total high employment, with 242,700 workers and a total payroll of $23 billion, the fifth highest cyberstate payroll in the nation.
These workers contribute knowledge to designing and making products such as the one shown at right from EMC Corp., the Hopkinton company that makes data storage products.
Massachusetts workers had an average salary of $94,770, which is 79 percent more than the state's average private sector wage of $52,798, said the report, which added that Massachusetts ranks fourth nationwide in research-and-development spending on a per capita basis and second in venture capital investments with $3.5 billion.
One down-side: Massachusetts lost 18 percent of its high-tech work force, or 52,600 jobs, between 2001 and 2006, the report said.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)
