The Washington area ranks as one of the top places in the country for high-tech jobs, according to a study released yesterday.
The region had the second-highest number of high-tech jobs among metropolitan areas, with almost 300,000, behind New York and ahead of Silicon Valley, according to the Cybercities 2008 report from electronics trade group AeA.
Washington also has the fifth-highest concentration of tech workers in the country, at 132 workers per 1,000 in 2006, well behind Silicon Valley, with 285.9 per 1,000.
The metro area has “the strongest economy in the nation,” the “most stable economy” among the top metropolitan areas, and “steady growth,” said Bobbie G. Kilberg, president and chief executive officer of the Northern Virginia Technology Council.
The region added 6,100 jobs from 2005 to 2006, a 2.1 percent increase.
The report closely follows the trade group’s April Cyberstates report, which found that Virginia had the highest concentration of high-tech jobs in the country.
Growth in Washington’s technology industry, like much of the country, plunged from 2001 to 2003 after the dot-combubble burst, said Kilberg, but the growth since then beat out New York and Silicon Valley.
“Our technology diversity brought us [back] around sooner” from the tech bust, said Paul Villella, president and chief executive officer of Reston professional staffing firm Hire Strategy.
But tech job growth has slowed since 2006 as the economy has slowed, said several experts who track local employment trends.
The numbers “seem a little overstated to me” for 2008, Villella said.
The professional business and services sector, which includes tech but also lawyers, architects and other professionals, has accounted for about 40 percent of job growth in both 2006 and 2008. But job growth overall has declined, said John McClain, senior fellow and deputy director for George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis.
The technology sector still is facing a talent shortage, with a dropoff in the number of tech graduates entering the local work force and an increased demand for workers to update companies’ capabilities, Villella said.
While unemployment nationwide was 5.5 percent in May, Villella estimated the local tech sector’s jobless rate is about 2.8 to 2.9 percent.
Companies in the area still have “lots of positions to fill,” Kilberg said.
