High-Technology is an evergrowing career path. Although the field has decreased from 2000 through 2002, many studies have indicated that the field is rebounding in 2003 and will only start to grow at a faster pace. Current college students, and people planning to attend college need to think about the fact that many new jobs will be created in the high-tech fields within the next 6 to 8 years. They also need to consider that the average wage for a high-tech employee is currently 59% higher then non high-tech employees. .
Is the high-tech industry in the state of Minnesota making a comeback from the setbacks that have plagued it for the last two to three years? What are some of the overall employment statistics for the state? What can a college graduate expect for a starting wage? What is the outlook for continued growth in the field?.
Although the high-tech industry job market has declined world wide over the past few years, in the last six months the industry seems to have been making a comeback. From the year 2001 to 2002 the industry lost 10,000 jobs in Minnesota alone (The Business Journal, page 1). These numbers gives an overall sense as to how much the industry was declining only 18 months ago. On the other hand, this last year has shown some strong growth. In 2003, 5.9% of Minnesota's work force was employed in the high-tech industry. That number currently ranks 7th in the nation. That's up from the states 17th place ranking in 2001 (PPi Technology Project, page 1). According to the Labor Research Association, the top 3 jobs on the department of labor's top-10 list for upcoming jobs are all IT related (Bigler, page 1). As of June 2003, there are a total of 131,127 jobs in the high-tech industry in the state of Minnesota. The state has a total high-tech payroll of 6.7 billion dollars, which works out to an average of $51,201 per high-tech worker. It is projected that by the year 2006 there will be over 400,000 high-tech jobs in Minnesota.