DC region had 293,000 IT jobs in 2009, study says

The Washington, D.C., region added 11,000 computer systems design and software services jobs between 2007 and 2009, according to a new report today from the TechAmerica Foundation.

The region employed 150,900 workers in those categories in 2009, which comprised about half the total of IT-related jobs in the region, said Olga Grkavac, executive vice president, public sector at TechAmerica.

“Even as the rest of the country battled recession, DC’s computer systems design sector added 11,000 jobs from 2007 to 2009, Grkavac said. “Software services continues to be a strong driver of the Capital region’s high-tech economy. Software enables productivity gains in all other sectors of the economy including the federal government. Policymakers need to understand the vital role technology plays when considering federal IT budgets and their impact on efficient, effective government.”

Considering all IT job categories and not just the computer design and software jobs, the Washington, D.C. region lost 1,700 IT-related jobs in a single year, between 2008 and 2009, according to the TechAmerica report.

Despite those losses, Washington remains an IT powerhouse, with 293,000 workers employed in high-tech positions in 2009, the third largest concentration in the country, in part owing to federal employment and contracting.

The top-ranked areas for IT jobs are Silicon Valley-San Francisco, which ranked first with 394,000 IT jobs, and New York City with 317,000.

Those who hold IT positions command relatively high wages. The average tech worker in the Washington region earned $100,500 in 2009, which was 69 percent higher than the region’s average private sector wage, the report said.

The next most popular categories for IT jobs in the region were engineering services, with 41,800 workers, and research and testing labs, with 34,000 workers in 2009.