Austin Third Highest Paying City for High-Tech

According to bizjournals.com, Austin has the third highest high-tech salaries of all cities in the United States.  In fact, the average person employed in the high-tech field in Austin earned a very attractive salary of $100,500 in 2006.  This rate is equivalent to 113% of what those working in the private sector are earning within the metro area.  In all, those working within the tech field earned a total of $6.9 billion in 2006.

The report, which was published by the American Electronics Association, used a number of factors to rank the top 60 cities in the country.  Among the criteria considered included wages, employment concentration, payroll, and wage differential among the largest cities in the country.  When it came to employment concentration within the high-tech field, Austin came in at number 8 in the nation.

In 2006, Austin employed around 68,800 people within the tech industry.  This made Austin the 23^rd largest tech market in the United States.  The largest sector within this market was that which involved manufacturing electronic components, which employed around 16,000 people in 2006.  The computer system design sector was the second larges within the market, employing approximately 11,900 people during that same year.  The third largest sector was the peripheral equipment manufacturing sector, which employed 10,700.