Central Valley plays growing role in high tech

WASHINGTON, D.C.
June 27, 2006 6:09am

The Central Valley isn’t quite Silicon Valley but there are thousands of high-tech jobs in the region, according to a report released Tuesday by AeA, a trade association of high tech companies formerly known as the American Electronics Association.

Bakersfield, Fresno, Stockton and Sacramento have enough people holding jobs with high-tech companies to make the report’s list as California “cybercities.”

Silicon Valley remains the heart of the nation’s high tech industry with 215,000 tech workers.

Statewide, more than 900,000 Californians are employed by high tech industries ranging from semiconductors to software, says the report, which bases its figures on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employment data from 2004, the latest available.

Fresno and Bakersfield, although much smaller in the numbers employed, are described as among California’s fastest-growing cybercities. “From 1999 to 2004, both the Fresno and Riverside-San Bernardino metro areas experienced tech industry employment growth exceeding 16 percent,” the report says.

“Fresno experienced the largest percent growth in its tech industry payroll, a 32 percent rise between 1999 and 2004, for a total of $266 million,” the report says.

“Riverside-San Bernardino and Bakersfield also experienced double digit tech payroll growth in this time period, 27 percent and 21 percent, respectively.”

The Sacramento metropolitan area employed 6,400 people in 2004 just in computer and peripherals manufacturing, ranking that Central Valley region fourth in the state for those types of jobs, according to the report.

In 2004, Bakersfield saw 4,261 people employed by 340 high tech firms, the report says. The average high-tech wage of $58,389 was nearly double the metro area’s average.

With 324 companies identified as high tech, Fresno had 5,064 jobs in the sector, the report says.

The average high-tech annual wage was $52,496, compared to Fresno County’s overall average of $29,105.

There were 210 companies in the Stockton metro area identified as high tech, employing 2,691 workers. Their average wage was $52,238, some $20,000 higher than the region’s average private sector wage, the report says.

Within the Central Valley, according to AeA’s figures, the Sacramento metro area is the high-tech giant, employing 42,182 with an average annual wage of $72,495. The report says the Sacramento area had 1,791 high tech companies in 2004.

The report notes that there are many definitions of “high tech.” For its study, the AeA defines it as companies that make or create technology, whether in the form of products or services.