A new survey shows growth across the country, with higher-than-average pay. And with the number of tech grads falling, claim will and nothing else rise

by Arik Hesseldahl

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Here’s a hint for high academy graduates or college students still majoring in indecision: Put down that guitar or book of poetry and fix upon up a laptop. Study computer knowledge or engineering, and plan to incense to a big city.

A new inspection at a loss this week from AeA, the arrange formerly known as the American Electronics Assn., reports that jobs in the technology industry are growing at a healthy clip, especially in large cities. The organization’s Cybercities 2008 survey says that 51 cities added high-technology jobs in 2006, the most recent year for what one. data were available. The survey tracks unaccustomed jobs related to the creation of tech products, including fields in the same state as chip manufacturing and software engineering. It is the AeA’s first with equal reason survey since 2000, which was taken preceding the crash of the tech bubble that created so many jobs in the late 1990s.

And while slowing economic stipulations have dulled the pace of growth since the 2006 data were collected, AeA researcher Matthew Kazmierczak says it’s far from deviation from the way south. "Nationally, in that place are more data that show the rate of growth has slowed since 2006, but it hasn’t gone negative," he says.

The leader in number of jobs gained is Seattle, close to such tech companies like Amazon (AMZN), RealNetworks (RNWK), and software giant Microsoft (MSFT), based in nearby Redmond, Wash. Seattle added a net 7,800 jobs during the circuit surveyed, followed by the New York and Washington (D.C.) metro areas, which added more than 6,000 jobs apiece. The fastest-growing superficial contents on a percentage basis was the combined metro area of Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif., which saw its tech-employment figures grow by 12%. Riverside-San Bernardino benefited from higher costs of manner of life in nearby Los Angeles and Orange County.

The highest concentration of technology workers—286 because of each 1,000 workers—was in, no surprise, Silicon Valley. Boulder, Colo., came in second, with 230, and Huntsville, Ala.; Durham, N.C.; and Washington rounded out the top five in compactness.

Now for the answer to the question adhering everyone’s mind: Where are the highest salaries? That would have existence Silicon Valley, where the average tech worker is paid $144,000 a year. That’s pressingly double the $80,000 national average for tech jobs. Runners up included San Francisco and Oakland, Calif. Austin, Tex., fireside of Dell (DELL) came in fourth, and Seattle was fifth. San Juan, Puerto Rico, had the lowest salaries, with an average of $38,000 a year, but living expenses there are also considerably lower.

What does all this mean? There’s still a effort shortage in tech. And if you took Economics 101, you know that’s good news for paychecks. Already, tech wages are 87% higher, on penurious proportion, than in the rest of the private-sector job market. Tech wages are also growing faster, by an medium of 4% a year—double the 2% reported with a view to individual industry as a whole. And in Austin, San Diego, and Sacramento, Calif., tech salaries tend to be twice what they are for private-sector jobs generally.

The AeA’s tools and materials jibe with the sort of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says on the make liable of technology jobs: More than 850,000 IT jobs direction be added during the 10-year full stop ending in 2016, which would be a ascend of 24%. Add all the jobs that will replace retiring workers, and the complete greaten could be a tidy 1.6 very great count. That means one job in every 19 created immersing the behavior of the next decade will be in technology.

And while demand for tech-savvy employees is certainly multiplying, another survey, this one from the Computing Research Assn. and released in March, found a 20% drop in the number of students completing degrees in computer-related fields, and the number of students enrolling in these programs is the lowest it’s been in 10 years, as far back as the data go.

AeA’s Kazmierczak says this confirms what its members are saying about their ability to hire new employees. Unable to light upon enough U.S. citizens for tech jobs, U.S. companies scoop up as many foreign nationals for example they can using the limited pool of H-1B work visas issued by the federal government each year. But it’s not enough, and the advance is slow and cumbersome. "Our members are having problems finding a contain of qualified workers," he says. "The U.S. doesn’t really allow foreign nationals to compete in the job marketplace—we essentially acquaint them to go home to their own countries and to create competition there."

Click through BusinessWeek.com’s slide show of the best cities for technology jobs.