CompTIA Newsroom

State ranks fifth in tech employment; second in innovation

Boston – Massachusetts’ technology industry employment grew by an estimated 3.2 percent in 2016 as employers added more than 9,400 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 300,632 workers, Massachusetts ranks fifth among the 50 states for tech industry employment. The large majority of these workers – better than 263,000 – are in the greater Boston area.

Technology occupations across all other industries in Massachusetts – the second component of the tech workforce – reached an estimated 234,700 in 2016.

The tech sector accounts for an estimated 12.7 percent of the overall Massachusetts economy.

The annualized average wage for a Massachusetts tech industry worker was an estimated $131,300 in 2016, 97 percent higher than the average state wage ($66,800). Massachusetts ranks third nationally in average tech industry wages.

Other Key Findings

• Massachusetts ranks second 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.
• There are an estimated 16,094 tech business establishments in Massachusetts. The majority of these businesses (11,000-plus) are based in the Boston metropolitan area.
• The tech industry employs an estimated 8.7 percent of the overall state workforce.
• Leading tech occupations include application software developers (29,910), systems software developers (27,380) and computer user support specialists (18,460).
• The strongest year-over-year job growth occurred in the categories of computer systems design and IT services (+ 6.6 percent) and R&D and testing labs (+ 6.6 percent).
• Employers posted more than 23,000 job openings for tech occupations in Q4 2016.

“The Cyberstates data affirms the strength and vitality of Massachusetts’ 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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Preston Grisham
CompTIA
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Steven Ostrowski
CompTIA
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