CompTIA: U.S. Tech Industry Employs 6.5 Million in 2014

Business is booming in the U.S. tech industry, with a recorded 129,600 jobs added between 2013 and 2014, according to CompTIA. Last year’s round of new hires bring the total number of IT jobs in the United States to 6.5 million, with tech industry jobs accounting for 5.7 percent of the entire private sector work force.

The latest figures on IT growth come from CompTIA’s “Cyberstates 2015: The Definitive State-by-State Analysis of the U.S. Tech Industry,” the company’s 16th annual study on employment, wages and economic factors affecting the technology industry. CompTIA found that tech employment grew at a rate of 2 percent between 2013 and 2014, matching the overall growth of private sector employment.

An increase in the IT services sector accounted for the most industry growth between 2013 and 2014, with a recorded 63,300 new jobs, according to CompTIA. Areas including R&D, testing and the engineering services sector also added 50,700 new jobs last year.

“The tech industry accounts for 7.1 percent of the overall U.S. GDP and 11.4 percent of the total U.S. private sector payroll,” said Todd Thibodeaux, president and CEO of CompTIA, in a statement. “With annual average wages that are more than double that of the private sector, we should be doing all we can to encourage the growth and vitality of our nation’s tech industry.”

National job postings for technology occupations exceeded 650,000 in the fourth quarter of 2014, averaging an increase of more than 11 percent in year-over-year figures, according to the study. The report also showed a net increase in tech industry employment in 2014 for 38 states, with the largest gains in California, Texas and Florida. However, California, Texas and New York continue to be the states with the largest overall tech employment.

“Tech workers are the life blood of our industry and as such we need to continue to do all that we can to ensure access to the best and the brightest workers in the world,” said Skip Newberry, president, Technology Association of Oregon and vice chairman, Technology Councils of North America. “This means focusing on STEM education, training and improving access to high-skilled immigrants. They are going to be the future drivers of our industry.”

While its clear to see from CompTIA’s report that the tech industry is growing rapidly in the United States, the report fails to mention any statistics regarding IT workers who work remotely or those who work in parallel industries. With the amount of growth seen throughout the country in traditional IT jobs, the question of whether IT has permeated every corner of the country is still something worth exploring.