Tech Employment Growth in Alaska Expected to Resume After Challenging 2020
Technology-related employment in Alaska is poised to accelerate in 2021 and could surpass 18,000 workers by year’s end, according to CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the information technology industry and workforce.
CompTIA’s Cyberstates 2021 report shows that at the end of 2020 net tech employment in the state totaled 17,914 workers, 5.3 percent of the overall Alaska workforce. The estimated median wage of $84,451 for tech workers is 61 percent more than the median wage for all occupations in the state. Alaska is home to nearly 1,100 tech businesses and the tech sector has a direct impact of $2 billion on the state’s economy.
Job growth this year is expected to be led by companies hiring core IT workers in a variety of roles, including cybersecurity, data scientists, software developers and IT user support specialists. Demand for workers with experience and skills in emerging infrastructure and hardware, artificial intelligence, data, next-gen cybersecurity, and other areas of emerging tech will continue to grow as employers across industries pursue digital transformation strategies.
Over the past five years, job postings for these types of positions have surged 190 percent.
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December 2024
“As we look ahead to a rapidly evolving future of work and the ever-expanding digital economy, both immense opportunity and challenges loom,” says Tim Herbert, executive vice president for research and market intelligence at CompTIA.
“Cyberstates confirms the importance of building resilient workforces and businesses through skills development, robust and secure digital infrastructure, and innovation-minded leadership.”
Tech Workforce Characteristics
Building on CompTIA’s belief that “there’s a place in tech for everyone” the Cyberstates 2021 report includes an expanded examination of the characteristics of America’s tech workforce, presenting a comparison of the representation of seven primary race and ethnicity groups, as defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, within technology occupations and compared to all occupations.
The report also includes a diversity index that measures the depth and breadth of diversity in the tech workforce for these seven groups in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and fifty-one metropolitan markets.
In Alaska women account for 27 percent of the tech workforce compared to 26 percent nationally. American Indians or Alaska Natives make up 7 percent of the state’s tech workforce (less than 1 percent nationally), representation of Hispanics or Latinos is at 4 percent (7 percent nationally), and Blacks or African Americans, 2 percent (8 percent nationally).
Cyberstates 2021 offers comprehensive information on the size and scope of the tech industry and workforce at the national, state and metro area-levels, including time-series trending, average wages, business establishments, job postings, innovation and emerging tech metrics.
For the interactive online version of Cyberstates 2021 visit www.cyberstates.org.
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