CompTIA Newsroom

CompTIA Cyberstates 2017™ finds state ranks 10^th in tech employment

Lansing, Mich. – Michigan’s technology industry employment grew by an estimated 5.1 percent in 2016 as employers added more than 10,700 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 221,994 workers, Michigan ranks 10^th among the 50 states for tech industry employment. Michigan was in the top five states in 2016 tech industry job growth on a percentage change basis.

Technology occupations across all other industries in Michigan – the second component of the tech workforce – reached an estimated 271,900 in 2016.

The tech sector accounts for an estimated 6.6 percent ($30.7 billion) of the overall Michigan economy.

The annualized average wage for a Michigan tech industry worker was an estimated $89,200 in 2016, 77 percent higher than the average state wage ($50,400). Michigan ranks 21^st nationally in average tech industry wages.

Other Key Findings

• Michigan ranks 27^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 11,223 tech business establishments. More than one-third of these businesses (4,174) are located in the Detroit metropolitan area.
• The tech industry employs an estimated 5.3 percent of the overall state workforce.
• Leading tech occupations include mechanical engineers (42,610), industrial engineers (25,500) and computer user support specialists (20,130). In the Detroit market, application software developers hold down the third spot for leading tech occupations.
• The strongest year-over-year job growth occurred in the categories of engineering services (+ 8.3 percent) R&D and testing labs (+ 5.4 percent) and computer systems design and IT services (+ 5.1 percent).
• Employers posted more than 28,600 job openings for tech occupations in Q4 2016.

"Michigan is proud to be recognized by Cyberstates as a leader in tech industry employment,” said Gov. Rick Snyder. “Over the past six years, we’ve worked hard to attract talent and close the skills gap, including in the hi-tech world, and have created nearly 500,000 private-sector jobs. Michigan also has a strong public/private partnership dedicated to working together to build statewide student proficiency in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. And as a global leader in design and engineering, we are proud to be home to the most FIRST Robotics teams in the U.S. – a national program that offers high schoolers the opportunity to work side-by-side with professional engineers to build, design and program robots that battle one another. We hope to build on these efforts to continue to grow a talented workforce and hi-tech industry within Michigan.”

“The Cyberstates data affirms the strength and vitality of Michigan’s tech industry, and attests to its essential standing in the economy,” said Todd Thibodeaux, president and CEO, CompTIA. “Technology enables innovation and generates growth for companies, regardless of their size, locale or markets served.”

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