State tech jobs on rise
By Jessica Lowell
CHEYENNE - When it comes to national rankings, Wyoming tends to rank very high or very low.
In the area of technology jobs, oddly enough, Wyoming ranks both high and low.
AeA, formerly the American Electronics Association, issued its 10th annual report, Cyberstates 2007, which details the state of the U.S. technology sector for the states.
Technology jobs are generally considered the cream of the economic development crop, as they tend to have higher wages.
Wyoming ranks last in the number of technology jobs overall. That's not especially surprising, as the state has the smallest population of all 50.
But Wyoming ranks first in its rate of growth in technology jobs, because growth has taken place every year since 2000.
"If you compare California to Wyoming, it's not always a great comparison," Matthew Kazmierczak, AeA vice president of research and industry analysis, said Wednesday.
The sector currently employs about 4,600 in Wyoming.
"But you had tech employment growth in every year from 2000 to 2005, not something I think other states can claim," Kazmierczak said. The growth totals about 35 percent for the period, nearly twice as high as the next fastest growing state, Montana.
And Wyoming lags in technology wages, paying far less than workers can command in other states.
"The average pay is $43,700, which is lower than in other states, but it's still 34 percent higher than the state's average, so there's still a premium there for high-tech workers, who get paid more for their skills," he said.
The flip side of the low wages, he said, is the rural sourcing phenomenon. Some companies want to cut costs, but instead of moving overseas, where they may encounter cultural and language barriers, they look to rural areas where wages are lower.
Even so, Wyoming's tech numbers give company executives some pause when considering whether to set up shop here.
When P. Allison Minugh was considering opening an office here three-and-a-half years ago, she had some concerns.
Minugh, the president and chief executive officer of Datacorp, a social research firm, said she ran an advertisement to see what kind of response existed for the positions she wanted to fill - research assistant, data analyst and programmer. Minugh said she hired two of the applicants six months later when the office opened.
The Cheyenne office was an expansion; the company also has an office in Providence, and Minugh splits her time between locations.
Social research, she said, is "nerdy stuff." Her company evaluates the results of programs in health services planning, as well as the need for programs.
When she has had trouble finding workers, Minugh said she has gone to both the University of Wyoming and Laramie County Community College to find prospects, and she has had some success with that.
"Our goal is to have our growth out here," she said.
If she has a wish for the tech industry, it's this: "I would like to see qualified job applicants when I need them."
If anything will change the state's outlook, it's the supercomputing complex that the National Center for Atmospheric Research plans to build just west of Cheyenne.
"Until this NCAR thing hit us, we didn't have the reputation," Wyoming Business Council director of business and industry Mark Willis said.
The announcement, which came at the end of January, was like hoisting a big flag over the state to say Wyoming can host a high-tech business, Willis said.
"That's more than all the advertising and marketing we can do. We have four serious inquiries in the state, not just in Cheyenne, and we didn't have them before NCAR made national news," he said.
The companies that are showing interest don't necessarily have anything to do with NCAR, but they have the same kinds of needs - energy, land and access to broadband.
Shawn Mills is also working to change the high-tech profile of the state. As the executive director of the Wyoming Technology Organization, Mills has been tracking more recent sector statistics.
Job growth noted in the AeA report continued through nine months of 2006, the latest period for which data is available.
That growth rate is very likely to continue, he said, thanks to two grants the organization is securing. One from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the other from the U.S. Department of Labor will both help develop two areas that are lacking - leadership, and marketing and sales support.
"I think the Technology Organization has had a big impact. Technology is on the radar screen with the governor, the Legislature and the Business Council," he said.
Other programs are targeting the problem too.
The university runs the Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer Program, which helps small and mid-size manufacturers win government contracts.
Program manager Gene Watson said the ranking is what his program is trying to change.
"With the lowest population in the country, with no large scale technology centers around the state aside from the University of Wyoming," Watson said, "that is where we are."