Is it possible Washington, D.C. has the most so-called knowledge workers in the country? While the answer could easily be a set up line for a joke ( for example: if that’s true you know they aren’t working in congress – ba-da-bump) – a study released this week say the region has the most significant cluster clusters of IT workers in the country. While you should to take these numbers with a grain of salt – after all the research was compiled by the Greater Washington Initiative – a regional economic development organization that works to attract businesses to suburban Maryland, the District and Northern Virginia – the Washington region has 18,680 knowledge workers per 100,000 residents, more than areas that also have more than 1 million residents, such as San Francisco-San Jose, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Boston. The region also has a higher median household income at $74,710 and a larger percentage of employees with at least a bachelor’s degree at almost 46% than the other large metro areas the study says. Here’s the breakdown:
BOSTON METRO Population: 4.4 million Knowledge Workers Per 100K Residents: 14,040 BA and higher: 40.6% Median household income: $63,840 NEW YORK METRO Population: 18.4 million Knowledge Workers Per 100K Residents: 14,750 BA and higher: 40.6% Median household income: $63,840 CHICAGO METRO Population: 9.3 million Knowledge Workers Per 100K Residents: 12,620 BA and higher: 32.1% Median household income: $54,710 SAN FRANCISCO-SAN JOSE METRO Population: 5.8 million Knowledge Workers Per 100K Residents: 15,570 BA and higher: 43.3% Median household income: $68,450 For the study’s purposes it defined a knowledge worker as anyone whose daily job requires you to use, analyze, and develop ideas and information. Here are a few other key facts from the study: * Greater Washington’s information technology workforce is larger than that of the San Francisco-San Jose metro area and three times larger than the national average. * The region has more than 7,500 IT firms, or roughly 148 firms for every 100,000 residents. This concentration is twice that of the New York and Chicago metro areas and three times that of Los Angeles. * An increasing number of these firms focus on innovation and programming, employing nearly 100,000 computer programmers and designers. In fact, the region employs six times the national average of computer scientists, and four times the national average in computer software engineers specializing in systems design. * The region’s knowledge workforce, which grew nearly 20% between 1999 and 2005, is expected to grow 16.1% by 2014, reaching 1.3 million workers. * The number of people providing professional services – the region’s largest talent pool – is expected to continue growing well ahead of the national average, reaching nearly a half-million people by 2014.
