Press Releases

State ranks 17^th in tech employment, 18^th in innovation

St. Paul, Minn. – Minnesota’s technology industry added an estimated 2,226 new jobs in 2016, 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 140,970 workers, Minnesota ranks 17^th among the 50 states in tech industry employment.

Technology occupations across all other industries in Minnesota – the second component of the tech workforce – reached an estimated 170,300 in 2016.

The tech sector accounts for an estimated 7.4 percent ($24.4 billion) of the overall Minnesota economy.

The annualized average wage for a Minnesota tech industry worker was an estimated $95,900 in 2016, 79 percent higher than the average state wage ($53,600).

Other Key Findings

• Minnesota ranks 18^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 9,165 tech business establishments. About half of these business are in the Twin Cities area.
• The tech industry employs an estimated 5 percent of the overall state workforce.
• Leading tech occupations include computer systems analysts (15,340), computer user support specialists (14,190) and application software developers (13,140).
• The strongest year-over-year job growth occurred in the categories of engineering services (+ 5.9 percent) and computer systems design and IT services (+ 5.7 percent).
• Employers posted an estimated 15,235 job openings for tech occupations in Q4 2016. The large majority of these jobs – better than 13,000 – were in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area.

“The Cyberstates data affirms the strength and vitality of Minnesota’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/.

CompTIA: Building the Foundation for Technology's Future

The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) is the world's leading technology association, with approximately 2,000 member companies, 3,000 academic and training partners, over 100,000 registered users and more than two million IT certifications issued. CompTIA's unparalleled range of programs foster workforce skills development and generate critical knowledge and insight – building the foundation for technology’s future. Visit CompTIA online, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to learn more. 

Contact:

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

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