August 22, 2003 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Metro areas with highest percentages of high-tech workers

San Jose, California, had the highest concentration of high-tech workers in the U.S. in 2001 among metropolitan areas, with just over 10 percent of workers employed in high-tech occupations.

[Chart data—TXT]

Boulder-Longmont, Colorado had the next highest share, at just under 10 percent, followed by Melbourne-Titusville-Palm Bay, Florida which had a high-tech employment share of about 7 percent.

Average annual wages in 2001 for high-tech occupations in the 10 metropolitan areas shown in the chart ranged from $48,120 in Melbourne-Titusville-Palm Bay, Florida to $79,800 in San Jose, California. In all of these areas the high-tech occupations had wages at least 50 percent higher than the average for non-high-tech occupations.

These data are from the BLS Occupational Employment Statistics program. To learn more, see Occupational Employment and Wages, 2001, Bulletin 2559, June 2003. The term “High-tech workers” is defined for this analysis as workers in 36 occupations utilizing new technologies to the greatest extent. This list of high-tech occupations includes computer-related occupations, engineers, scientists, technicians, technologists, and multi-media artists and animators.