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CompTIA Cyberstates 2017™ finds state is home to nearly 7,400 tech businesses and 77,000-plus tech professionals

Nashville, Tenn., – Technology industry employment in Tennessee was essentially flat 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.

The tech industry workforce declined by an estimated 582 jobs, a drop of less than 1 percent. Tennessee is still home to an estimated 77,683 tech industry workers, good for 25^th place among the 50 states.

Technology occupations across all other industries in Tennessee – the second component of the tech workforce – reached an estimated 109,400 in 2016.

The tech sector accounts for an estimated 3.7 percent ($11.7 billion) of the overall Tennessee economy.

The annualized average wage for a Tennessee tech industry worker was an estimated $80,200 in 2016, 71 percent higher than the average state wage ($46,900).

Other Key Findings

• Tennessee ranks 41^st 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 7,394 tech business establishments.
• The tech industry employs an estimated 2.7 percent of the overall state workforce.
• Leading tech occupations include computer user support specialists (9,850), industrial engineers (7,880) and computer systems analysts (7,330).
• The strongest year-over-year job growth occurred in the categories of computer systems design and IT services (+ 6.9 percent) and Internet services (+ 3.3 percent).
• Employers posted an estimated 7,700 job openings for tech occupations in Q4 2016.

Around the Volunteer State

More than 2,300 the business establishments are located in the Nashville area, which experienced a robust growth rate of 13.7 percent in packaged software occupations last year. The total tech industry workforce in Nashville exceeds 27,000.

Memphis boasts about 12,400 works, led by computer user support specialists, industrial engineer and computer systems analysis. There are about 900 tech business establishments in and around Memphis.

The Chattanooga market is home to approximately 440 tech business establishments and 4,000 workers.

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