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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Revisiting Cybercities

Say “cybercities” and many folks imagine those goofy online worlds peopled by impossibly attractive and slutty cartoon avatars.

The thought of an offline cybercity seems quaint, like a concept from the roaring dot-com era of the 1990s.

But it pops up today in a report from New Jersey-based AeA, a technology industry association, on the status of the high-tech industry in 60 U.S. metropolitan areas — cybercities — including our region.

The report, the AeA’s first cybercities update in eight years, is based on 2006 figures, the latest available from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Philadelphia makes a good, but not spectacular, showing.

AeA notes a 2.8 percent one-year gain (3,600 jobs) in high-tech employment in the region, for a total of 132,000 high-tech workers here. That made Philadelphia No. 8 among the 60 cities, both in total tech jobs and in jobs gained.

The top five were New York City; Washington, D.C.; Silicon Valley; Boston; and Dallas-Fort Worth.

Philadelphia did rank fifth in employment in high-tech research and development and testing labs, and seventh in employment in computer systems design and related services.

But, according to the report, high-tech firms here employed 57 of every 1,000 private-sector workers in 2006 — ranking Philadelphia at an anemic 33d among the 60 cities in that category.

Still, Peter J. Boni, AeA’s vice chairman, who is also president and CEO of Wayne-based Safeguard Scientifics Inc., says the report shows “great progress for the City of Brotherly Love … whose major innovation is not high tech, but the cheesesteak.”

The last cybercities report by AeA came out as the Internet bubble was popping, and before 9/11.

The frenzy of those days has not returned. But, says Boni, it is still critically important to tune up the schools in math and science for a 21st-century workforce.

“We need to make sure that we are adequately providing our children with a solid foundation for these types of jobs,” he says.

After all, we’re not talking avatars, or even cheesesteaks, anymore. With 7,100 high-tech companies and their combined payroll of $11 billion, we’re talking about a real-world cybercity.
Posted by Reid Kanaley @ 3:05 AM  Permalink | 1 comment
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 3:19 PM, 06/24/2008
    I work in the high tech field and think it would be nice if there were more opportunities to perform this kind of work in the city. I've found many of the high tech jobs are in the surrounding region and not actually within Philadelphia itself.
    — sdphilly


1 comments
About Mike Armstrong
Mike Armstrong, a business editor and writer for nearly two decades, is the Inquirer's business columnist and PhillyInc blog editor. Contact Mike via e-mail or at 215-854-2980
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