The US has the most advanced software and information technology (IT) services industry in the world. More than 40% of the $5 trillion global IT market is in North America, most of which is in the US. In the US there are over 12 million tech workers, and from 2010 to 2019 the industry grew by 2.3 million jobs, with 300,000+ additional jobs in 2019 alone. The tech industry accounts for 10% of the US economy and saw a 66% increase in GDP from 2010-2019; this equates to $745.5 billion in output. In 2017, the tech industry saw $78.575 billion go toward just R&D.
California has nearly 1.9 million tech employees, making it the largest tech employer in the US. Silicon Valley has long been known as the tech center of the world, with many of the largest tech companies calling it home, including Twitter, Facebook, Netflix, Apple, and Google. This area alone accounts for almost 1 million of the tech jobs in the state. Although Silicon Valley has held the title as top spot for tech companies for a number of years now, there are also other cities that are major players in the tech industry.
New York City has more tech workers than Silicon Valley and is furthering that number; Facebook has added over 1,000 new workers in NYC and could be adding another 8,500 employees once their newly bought NYC headquarters are completed. Tech giants, Apple and Google, have also expanded to New York.
Two other popular destinations for tech companies are Salt Lake City, Utah and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. Over 2019, Salt Lake City has had the second most tech commercial leases established. Tech companies made up more than two-thirds of the major commercial leases. Other cities that are starting to see an influx of tech companies are Austin, Texas and Seattle, Washington. Denver, Colorado is also on the rise and is attracting tech companies.
The states with the largest economic impact are California, Texas, New York, and Washington. $334 billion of California’s $493 billion of economic impact comes from Silicon Valley, due to computer and electronics manufacturing.
The states with the largest number of tech workers are California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Virginia. In addition, the states with the largest projected increase in tech jobs through 2028 are Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, and Texas. In 2019, the leading tech industry sectors based on jobs were IT and custom software services, R&D, testing and engineering services, telecom and internet services, tech manufacturing, and software, accounting for ~7.6 million jobs. This is an increase of roughly 200,000 from the previous year.
