Featured Indicator No. 5

August 2009

 

Featured Indicator: High Tech Employment per 1,000 Residents - 2006

This indicator compares the number of people employed in high tech jobs per 1,000 residents in three Maine metro areas to two other northern New England metro areas and the total for all metros across the United States. You can see that the Lewiston-Auburn (ranked at 317 out of 363) and Bangor (ranked at 271) metro areas fall far behind any of the others, while the greater Portland (ranked at 62) metro comes in slightly higher than the average of all metros. However, both the Manchester (ranked at 16) and Burlington (ranked at 15) MSAs come in at about twice that of either Portland or the total of all metro areas.

Why This Is Significant
High technology employment is an indicator of a region’s ability to build, recruit and retain a highly educated and technically skilled workforce. High technology jobs typically pay higher wages than non-technology related jobs. Therefore, employment in technology-intensive businesses helps increase the standard of living among regional residents.

Sources

Regional Economic Information System, Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce. U.S. Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2006.

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