July 21, 1999 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

High tech, high pay

Is it true that high-tech jobs are high-paying jobs? A new study from BLS says the answer is generally "Yes."

[Chart data—TXT]

In each of the 29 industries identified as high-tech in the study, the median annual wage in 1997 exceeded the $22,734 median for all nonfarm industries. Wages were far above the overall median in some high-tech industries. The median for computer and data processing services was $40,602, or about $344 more per week over the 52 weeks of the year.

In other high-tech industries, annual wages were only somewhat above the median for all industries. For example, in the electrical industrial apparatus manufacturing industry, the median annual wage was $23,941, about $23 per week more than the overall median.

The 1997 wage data are from the BLS Occupational Employment Statistics Survey. Find more information on high-tech employment and wages in "High-technology employment: a broader view," by Daniel Hecker, Monthly Labor Review, June 1999.