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CompTIA Cyberstates 2017™ finds state 24^th in tech employment

Montgomery, Ala. – Alabama’s technology industry employment grew by 1.1 percent in 2016 as employers added an estimated 875 new jobs, according to Cyberstates 2017™, the definitive annual analysis of the nation’s tech industry released today by CompTIA, the world’s leading technology association.

With an estimated 79,619 workers, Alabama ranks 24^th among the 50 states in tech industry employment.

Technology occupations across all other industries in Alabama – the second component of the tech workforce – reached an estimated 93,700 in 2016.

The tech sector accounts for an estimated 5.5 percent ($10.9 billion) of the overall state economy.

The annualized average wage for a tech industry worker in Alabama was an estimated $82,400 in 2016, 86 percent higher than the average state wage ($44,400).

Other Key Findings

• Alabama ranks 44^th among all states in the Cyberstates 2017 Innovation Score, which is based on an analysis of new tech patents, tech startups and new tech business establishments on a per capita basis.
• The state is home to an estimated 5,848 tech business establishments.
• The tech industry employs an estimated 4.2 percent of the overall state workforce.
• Leading tech occupations include computer user support specialists (5,990), computer programmers (5,830) and application software developers (4,940).
• The strongest year-over-year job growth occurred in the category of R&D and testing labs (+ 6.6 percent).
• Employers posted an estimated 7,234 job openings for tech occupations in Q4 2016.

Cyberstates 2017 is based on CompTIA’s analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, EMSI, and other sources. Estimates for 2016 are subject to change as government data is revised and updated. The complete report with full national, state and metropolitan level data is available at http://www.cyberstates.org/.

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Contact:

Preston Grisham
CompTIA
pgrisham@comptia.org
(202) 862-4458

Steven Ostrowski
CompTIA
sostrowski@comptia.org
(630) 678-8468