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CompTIA Cyberstates 2017™ finds state is home to 1,300 tech businesses and 10,000-plus tech professionals

Pierre, S.D. – South Dakota’s technology industry employment grew by nearly 4 percent 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.

Tech industry employers added 394 new jobs, bringing the statewide total to an estimated 10,595 workers at the end of 2016.

Technology occupations across all other industries in South Dakota – the second component of the tech workforce – reached an estimated 14,200 in 2016.

The tech sector accounts for an estimated 3.2 percent ($1.5 billion) of the overall South Dakota economy.

The annualized average wage for a South Dakota tech industry worker was an estimated $61,900 in 2016, 53 percent higher than the average state wage ($40,500).

Other Key Findings

• South Dakota is home to an estimated 1,321 tech business establishments.
• The tech industry employs an estimated 2.5 percent of the overall state workforce.
• Leading tech occupations include network and computer administrators (1,570), computer user support specialists (1,330) and electrical and electronic equipment assemblers (1,300).
• The strongest year-over-year job growth occurred in the categories of computer systems design and IT services (+ 9 percent), R&D and testing labs (+ 8.9 percent) and engineering services (+ 3.9 percent).
• Employers posted an estimated 1,277 job openings for tech occupations in Q4 2016.

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

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