What does this indicator measure?

This indicator shows the percentage of high-tech jobs out of all jobs in select upstate Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA’s), all Metro Areas, the 100 Largest Metro Areas and the United States.  Be sure to check out the attached Excel spread sheet for more detailed numbers on the top 100 Metro Areas.

New technologies need people to discover and develop them. Often those people work in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) fields*. The concentration of STEM workers within a metropolitan area can be a good indication of the amount of high-tech, innovative activity taking place there. However, it takes a team of managers, marketers, accountants, production workers, and others to bring new technologies to market. One scientist or engineer could represent a hundred jobs involved in other types of work in the same industry. Here, high-technology industries are defined as those in which scientists and engineers comprise at least 10 percent of all jobs**.–Explanation courtesy of Brookings Institute

*High-tech STEM occupations are defined by Daniel Hecker in “Tech-technology employment: a NAICS-based update” in the July, 2005 Monthly Labor Review.

**In accordance with Hecker, 2005. This definition included 46 four-digit NAICS industries in 2002.