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Idaho's future depends on small tech companies
Submitted by Ken Dey on Wed, 04/02/2008 - 9:49am.
The new Cyberstates report from the American Electronics Association came out Wednesday and it paints an interesting picture about the health of Idaho’s high technology industry.
About the only category that Idaho leads in, when compared to other states, is the difference between high tech wages and the average state wage. Idaho’s average high tech wage is $67,200 a year a whopping 107 percent higher than that state’s average wage of $32,400.
With that kind of gap one would think that the state would be clamoring to create more high tech jobs and pull Idaho out of its long-standing reputation as a haven for low-wage jobs.
But if you look at the employment numbers in the reports, you’ll notice that the number of Idaho jobs in the high tech industry is actually down by 1,500 jobs since 2001. To be fair, that’s a statistic that is shared by the majority of the states. Only a handful of states have been able to get back to employment levels enjoyed before the 2001 fall.
The one statistic I did find interesting was the number of high tech firms in Idaho. In 2001, Idaho had 1,518 firms. In 2006, the number had jumped to 1,837 firms yet overall employment was down.
Most of the employment declines can be attributed to the big players in Idaho like Hewlett-Packard and Micron Technology.
If this report is accurate, the one positive take-away is that the number of small tech companies continues to increase. If I did my math right, the number of firms has increased by more than 20 percent since 2001.
With the number of employees in high tech declining, yet the number of high tech companies growing we have created a scenario in Idaho where it is more critical then ever to put our resources into helping grow these small companies.
But that is is an area where Idaho hasn’t been very successful. In Idaho, the big companies still get the majority of attention from Idaho's state leaders.
It’s too late to do anything this year Legislature, but next year the tech industry needs to bring the statistics on company growth to the Legislature and make the case for providing more help for tech.
I think even our skeptical legislators would be hard-pressed to find an industry that has increased the number of companies by 20 percent since 2001.
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What is a TECH COMPANY?
Making a grilled cheese sandwich involves a technology. Everything's tech, to the point where every time you try to tell us what is the big diff and this is and that simply AIN'T...
Your Tech becomes REDUNDANT.
Why don't you write about Idaho business?
Wholly Oregonian!
spot on, spotted owl!
Those new "Small Tech Companies"
are for the most part start ups by the techies that have been laid off and are still trying to make a living and stay in Idaho. I my self was one of the "lost Children" metioned by Gov. Andrus that left the state during the ressecion of the 80's to find work in silicon valley that returned for the boom in the late 90's. I own and operate one of those small tech companies but I am looking at other opportunities around the country.
The problem with the theory presented is simple...
We NEED people to work in grocery stores and gas stations, clean clothes, sell carpet, nails and lumber.
Of this you'll never get away from. If all you can speak of is WAGES, you are doomed to fail in this society for it's not just what you make, it's the overall support that your product lends the human equation. You cannot make all 'guns' and no 'butter'. Your economy will wither and die.
Lastly, tech industries face harder times simply because tech products are usually more expensive and often not as durable as a traditional replacement cycle has tended to demand. Add the tendency of rapid redundancy and cyclic training costs and you might see why some people should be barbers and shoe salesmen...burger cooks.
You cannot have one without the other or you will have to import services anyway, scuttling the boat.
Growth is dismal
You wrote ""one positive take-away is that the number of small tech companies continues to increase.""
21 percent increase in 5 years--- that is only simple compounding.
for what you call "small tech companies"? Not too impressive. Ever heard of the power of compounding? If you were a mathmatician (or a business analyst) instead of a bad journalist, you would've done the math to calculate an annual increase of something more like 4%:
2001- 1518+4%=1579
2002- 1579+4%=1642
2003- 1642+4%=1708
2004- 1708+4%=1776
2005- 1776+4%=1847 that's up by 10 firms compared to the stat.
Big WHOOOP! That is hardly a "positive take-away".
Imagine if China's 'hi-tech' growth rate for the last 5 years were only 4 percent.
*******
Please try harder to write better stuff.
You're glossing over the problem
In this highly respected & widely quoted report, Idaho is listed as gaining only 200 tech jobs ('05-'06). Compare that to 3300 for Utah, 6700 for New Mexico, 5200 for Arizona, 2900 for Oregon, or 6300 for Washington.
More chicken-journalism from the Statesman, because to draw an inference (gasp!) might mean your pantywaist approach to reporting on our dismal political-economy might be a contributing factor. In this case, what's happening to Idaho's mismanaged economy will affect you guys directly.
growth is dismal...
But keep in mind that one of the attractions for a high tech company is a large work force of skilled workers--and not just those with CS and EE degrees, but also technicians, IT workers, and the related service industries. We really need to make sure that our kids get decent educations in math and the sciences--and have the opportunity to go to college.
Idaho has, depending on how you measure it, 45 or 50 in the U.S. for rates of high school grads going to college. Some of that is cultural, but some of it is that a lot of our population lives in places remote from colleges, and because of family obligations or finances, can't afford to move to Boise or Moscow. We can fix this, without spending a pile of money. The question is: will we?
Online?
It's gonna be so abused by then that few may trust it or care.