New York Tops Tech Jobs Ranking

The New York metropolitan area -- including several nearby New Jersey counties -- has more technology workers than any other in the U.S., according to a report by TechAmerica Foundation released Wednesday.

New York had 317,000 technology jobs in 2009, topping a list of 60 cities, according to the Cybercities 2010: The Definitive Analysis of the High-Tech Industry in the Nation's Top 60 Cities survey. The industry group's survey tracks trends in high-tech employment, wages, establishments, payroll, employment concentration, and wage differential in cities.

New York is known more for its jobs in the financial services sector, while the Silicon Valley in California has more of a reputation for high-tech.

While the survey shows New York is now a cybercity in its own right, Silicon Valley and its city of San Jose still has an edge in terms of cyber-sector concentration. Nearly 30% of workers in the private sector in that area are employed by the tech industry, according to the survey.

San Jose/Silicon Valley came in third overall in terms of high-tech employment in 2009. Washington came in second, Boston in fourth followed by Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, Philadelphia, and Houston.

While it didn't make the top-10 list, Oklahoma City was No. 1 in terms of tech-industry employment growth. The city added more than 900 jobs in 2009, according to the survey.

New York, despite having the highest number of high-tech jobs, actually lost 3% -- or 8,700 jobs -- in the sector over the previous year, according to the survey.

The jobs, which on average pay $98,500 annually, are mainly in computer systems design and related services. This sector employed 97,700 workers in 2009, according to the survey. 61,800 high-tech workers in New York in 2009 were in the telecommunications services sector, while 50,400 were in R&D and testing labs.

The pay for high-tech jobs in New York is 51% more than the city's other private-sector jobs. In total, the payroll for high-tech workers in the New York metro area was $31.2 billion in 2009.