Thursday, April 20, 2006

Arizona, Idaho Ahead of Utah, Colorado In Tech Jobs Report

The AeA, an industry group representing the high tech industry, reported this week in their annual Cyberstates report, that Arizona and Idaho were ahead of Utah and Colorado in high tech job growth. The report showed that in 2004, the latest data available, Arizona added 1300 technology workers, Idaho added 1,000 net jobs, and Utah added 800 net jobs in the period. Colorado saw a 2,500 jobs lost in that period. However, Colorado was still the top ranked Cyberstate in the region in the group's report, ranked at 12th, with 159,800 high-tech workers. Arizona was close behind at 18th, at 110,800 high tech workers, and Utah was 27th with 49,300, and Idaho at 35th, with 35,000 workers in 2004. In terms of venture capital, Colorado led with $615M in VC investment in 2005. Utah had $248M in investment, Arizona had $148M, and Idaho trailed with only $8M in investment in the period. Investments in all four states were up from 2004.