Governor Kaine Announces Virginia as the National Leader in Tech Job Creation

RICHMOND - Governor Timothy M. Kaine today announced that AeA, the nation’s largest trade association representing all segments of the high-tech industry, has ranked Virginia as the national leader for high-tech job growth. The report, Cyberstates 2006: A Complete State-by-State Overview of the High-Technology Industry, covers all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, detailing national and state trends in high-tech employment, wages, exports and other key economic factors.

“We are proud of Virginia's track record of extending high technology job growth across the Commonwealth, especially in our rural communities,” said Governor Kaine. “This job growth is great for Virginia’s economy since tech industry jobs pay almost twice as much as the average private sector wage.”

Virginia’s high-tech industry employment grew by 9,100 net jobs to 253,300 in 2004. A significant part of the Commonwealth’s job growth occurred in Virginia’s largest technology sector, computer systems design and related services, which gained 6,600 jobs between 2003 and 2004. Virginia ranked second by computer systems design and related services employment nationwide, and second in terms of high-tech concentration of jobs with 88.6 of every 1,000 private-sector employees working in the tech industry, only slightly behind Colorado at 88.7.

According to the report, Florida ranked No. 2 with 6,700 net jobs, Maryland ranked third with 2,800 net jobs and New Hampshire ranked fourth with 2,400 jobs. Puerto Rico ranked fifth with 1,900 net jobs.

“The high-tech industry is booming in Virginia,” said Gregory Poersch, Executive Director of the AeA Potomac Council. “Tech jobs, wages and exports are all on the rise. Venture capital investments jumped by 38 percent in 2005. If these trends continue, next year Virginia will become the state with the highest concentration of tech workers in the nation.”

Nationally, Cyberstates 2006 demonstrates that the high-tech industry is edging forward, adding 61,100 net jobs for a total of 5.6 million workers in 2005, the first increase in tech jobs in four years. U.S. high-tech exports also were up by 4 percent for a total of $199 billion in 2005.

For more information about the report, please visit www.aeanet.org/cyberstates.