While the New Jersey Legislature begins its budget hearing for the FY 2017 budget, I thought it would be great to share the recent release of CompTIA's annual CyberStates report. New Jersey continues to be an information technology powerhouse, but the job growth has waned in recent years.
The National IT Industry Trade Association does an excellent job sharing the significant job creation and support for the economy.
New Jersey's tech sector contributes an estimated 7 percent to the state economy compared to other states. New Jersey ranks 10th in employment with 208,581 employees but scored third to last for Tech Employment Growth with a loss of 70 jobs.
New Jersey technology workers have an average salary of $118,490, the fourth highest average in the country and almost twice as high as the average private-sector wage in New Jersey.
The tech-sector payroll of $24.7 billion accounted for 6.3 percent of all private-sector payrolls in the Garden State. In fact, 7 percent of the state's economy derives from the state economy with $37 billion in total economic activity.
These stats are consistent with the NJ Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJDOLWD)'s new industry cluster reports on Technology Study: Winter 2015-2016, which includes utilities, manufacturing, information and professional, scientific, and technical services industries.