Michigan is climbing the ranks when it comes to tech jobs, growing by 5.1% in 2016 and creating 10,700 jobs. It placed in the top 5 states for percentage growth and was the 10th largest employer of tech workers in the US, with 221,994 employed. The tech sector alone accounted for over $30 billion of the Michigan economy last year (6.6%).
On average, a Michigan tech wage was $89,200 last year, which was well above the state average of $50,400. Popular jobs included industrial engineers, mechanical engineers and computer user support specialists. In quarter four of 2016, there were 28,600 job postings for tech jobs.
Governor Rick Snyder said that, “Over the past six years, we’ve worked hard to attract talent and close the skills gap, including in the high-tech world, and have created nearly 500,000 private-sector jobs. Michigan also has a strong public/private partnership dedicated to working together to build state-wide student proficiency in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics… As a global leader in design and engineering, we are proud to be home to the most FIRST Robotics teams in the U.S. — a national program that offers high schoolers the opportunity to work side-by-side with professional engineers to build, design, and program robots that battle one another (in standardized competitions). We hope to build on these efforts to continue to grow a talented workforce and high-tech industry within Michigan.”
Jobs for tech workers are increasing, not just at technology companies, but in finance, manufacturers and retailers. In fact, two-thirds of these jobs are outside of specific technology businesses. Computing now has twice as many jobs as manufacturing.
Computing now has twice as many jobs as manufacturing. With the tech boom occurring outside of Silicon Valley in places like Michigan, Utah and North Carolina, it is argued that more training is required to fill the shortage. Students in rural areas are less likely than those in the cities to have access to such training, caused in part by a lack of qualified teachers and less funding. However, there is also a skills gap in metro areas and we’re seeing coding bootcamps popping up all over the country.
In Michigan, one of the areas where the strongest year-over-year job growth was seen was R&D and testing labs (5.4%). If your business is undertaking R&D, you may be able to benefit from the R&D Tax Credit. To find out whether you qualify, have a chat with one of our R&D Specialists today.
