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1 by ross devol It has been nearly 10 years since the Milken Institute first released America s High-Tech Economy, an analysis of the impact of high-tech industries on regional economic development. Shortly thereafter, the dot-com and high-tech bubbles popped, leading many to conclude that the era of tech-driven economic development was over. dreamworks animation/bureau l.a. collection/corbis Ross DeVol directs the Milken Institute s Regional Economics Group and its Center for Health Economics Film animation, Los Angeles But the pessimists were wrong. A recovery in high tech began in 2003 and served as an engine of regional growth through most of Communities with concentrations of knowledgebased industries everything from information technology to biopharmaceuticals have been able to create and retain high-paying jobs. In this study, individual metro areas are ranked according to their performance as tech poles, using data from 19 sub-sectors of what can be broadly defined as the high-tech sector. A complete explanation of our methodology can be found in the full report, downloadable from This time around, we extended the study to include Canada and Mexico. By including all of North America, we can now answer questions such as, Does Ottawa rank ahead of San Jose in communications equipment? (Yes! Although Canada s capital ranks only 37th in North America overall) and Does Baja California lead all North American metros in semiconductor and other electronic components manufacturing? (Close, but not quite.) the top-20 u.s. and canadian metros The San Jose Sunnyvale Santa Clara, California metro area (Silicon Valley) remains the preeminent high-tech cluster in North America (and the world). Its business ecosystem is unparalleled in spawning entrepreneurial firms that create new products, services and entire industries, while sustaining techanchor firms that remain at the leading edge of innovation in their industries. The region has an unrivaled capacity to 83

2 capture locally generated intellectual property and to convert it into economically viable businesses. Silicon Valley firms regard R&D as part of their very DNA; they see innovation as their core business mission rather than as a necessity that can be given short shrift when times get tough (like now). Stanford University provides cutting-edge research to the local private sector, and its alumni are among the most prominent entrepreneurs in the region. The University of California (Berkeley) campus to the north, along with a number of other Bay Area universities, also provide high-end human capital. But Silicon Valley s pull is such that it has no difficulty attracting the brightest minds from around the world. Although Silicon Valley remains the most important node on the international hightech network, its enterprises had to restructure their operations in the wake of the dotcom and high-tech busts. Businesses are now more cost conscious, outsourcing lowervalue-added functions while retaining the highest-valued and most creative elements. Manufacturing in particular, manufacturing of heavily commoditized products such as PC components was in part relocated. This process was not accomplished without substantial pain, as thousands of jobs were lost. The Valley s famed Sand Hill Road venture capitalists are now more inclined to go abroad to India, China and Israel to fund new enterprises and to seek partners for their portfolios of start-ups. Many foreign-born engineers, software developers and tech-savvy entrepreneurs have left the area to lead a wave of technology entrepreneurship back home. But this process is better termed brain circulation than brain drain, as these innovators are inclined to retain strong ties to former colleagues in Silicon Valley. The breadth of high-tech activity in the metro area is shown by its ranking as first or second in six industry categories; it places among the top 10 in 12 categories. Overall, its high-tech employment concentration is fourand-a-half times the metro average for North America. The San Jose metro may not dominate the technology landscape as fully as it did 10 years ago, but its position is still unique. San Jose was first in the tech pole rankings in computer and peripheral equipment manufacturing (in spite of the trend toward outsourcing), accounting for 17 percent of employment and 28 percent of wages paid in the field in North America. Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems and Apple are the anchor companies in this sector. And as home to Intel, Advanced Micro Devices and LSI, it holds a similar leading position in semiconductor and other electronic component manufacturing. With Google and Yahoo! in the portfolio, too, it s the leader in data processing, hosting and related services. Although Ottawa has topped San Jose in communications equipment manufacturing, Silicon Valley remains a center of influence thanks to Cisco Systems and other firms. Seattle Bellevue Everett s second-place position on the tech pole index should be no surprise. The metro area employed 226,300 high-tech workers in 2007, just 17,700 fewer than San Jose. Seattle owes most of its stellar ranking, of course, to software and aerospace. Microsoft, along with its spin-offs and other start-up firms, has positioned the area as the leading global center for software. The giant company employs more than 33,000 workers in the metro, giving it first place on the tech pole index in software publishing. Seattle doesn t just lead in software, it dominates the landscape with a tech pole score of 100, five times that of Cambridge. More than 23 percent of wages in North America s software 84 The Milken Institute Review

3 charles o rear/corbis Chip manufacturing, Perris, California 85

4 industry are paid to workers in the metro. Although Seattle is no longer the corporate headquarters of Boeing, much of that company s operations remain, along with a bevy of aerospace subcontractors. Altogether, Seattle employed 76,100 in aerospace products and parts manufacturing in Only Wichita, Kansas has a higher concentration in Aerospace research, Everett aerospace. Seattle also ranks among the top- 10 tech poles in telecommunications and other information services. The Massachusetts metro combining Cambridge Newton Framingham, is third on the tech pole index. Home to world-class research universities, including Harvard and MIT, and the global leader in commercializing and transferring university research to the private sector, the metro area s technology entrepreneurship ecosystem rivals Silicon Valley s. The research intensity in the area has enabled it to be among the elite in generating and growing biotech start-ups, as well as attracting the research divisions of large pharmaceutical and biotech firms. The Cambridge metro was the birthplace of many computer companies and remains a major player in the industry. Cambridge is the top-ranked tech pole in scientific R&D services, a category that captures much of its biotech research. Scientific R&D employed 26,000 locally in 2007; these activities are nearly eight times more concentrated in the Cambridge area than in North America overall. Biogen IDEC and Genzyme are its two most prominent locally incubated biotech firms; Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research and Millennium Pharmaceuticals are also there in force. Boston Scientific helps place the metro area among the leaders in navigational, measuring, electromedical and control instruments manufacturing. Cambridge ranks second on the software index, and it makes the top 10 in a total of nine categories. Washington Arlington Alexandria is fourth among tech poles, just ahead of Los Angeles. The area is the North American leader in high-tech services, placing in the top 10 in six out of eight high-tech service categories. Overall, firms in the Washington metro employed 275,700 workers in high-tech in 2007, double the average concentration in North America. The presence of much of the federal government in DC generates the need for massive data-processing support and attracts defense and aerospace contractors. By no coincidence, metro Washington leads in computer systems design and related services, where it has more than five times the average concentration found in North America. In this sector, it dominates other tech poles, with twice the score of second-place San Jose. Washington, it s worth noting, has gained an important competitive advantage linked to the economies of scale created by high paul souders/aurora 86 The Milken Institute Review

5 top 50 high-tech poles, 2007 current 2003 employment share of north tech pole rank rank metro area (thousands) lq american wages scores 1 1 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA % Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA Cambridge-Newton-Framingham, MA Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV 5 4 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA Dallas-Plano-Irving, TX San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, CA New York-White Plains-Wayne, NY-NJ San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, CA Philadelphia, PA Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA Edison, NJ Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, IL Toronto, ON Oakland-Fremont-Hayward, CA Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI Denver-Aurora, CO Montréal, QC Austin-Round Rock, TX Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX Huntsville, AL Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ Wichita, KS Bethesda-Gaithersburg-Frederick, MD Durham, NC Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR-WA Boulder, CO Newark-Union, NJ-PA Warren-Farmington Hills-Troy, MI Kansas City, MO-KS Baltimore-Towson, MD St. Louis, MO-IL Salt Lake City, UT Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Vancouver, BC Ottawa, ON Raleigh-Cary, NC Albuquerque, NM Nassau-Suffolk, NY Indianapolis, IN Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Orlando-Kissimmee, FL Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT Columbus, OH Pittsburgh, PA Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL Lake County-Kenosha County, IL-WI Colorado Springs, CO sources: BLS; Moody s Economy.com; Statistics Canada notes: Mexico not included because the available statistics are not comparable. LQ stands for location quotient. An LQ of 4.0 would mean that the metro has four times the concentration of high-tech jobs as the North American average. 87

6 local demand. Computer systems design is now the largest non-government sector in the metro area; the Computer Sciences Corporation alone employs more than 11,000. IBM has a major footprint as well. Washington is third in scientific R&D services, where biotech and other research in the hard sciences are captured. The National Institutes of Health and its spin-offs in the biotech area aid the metro area s performance. Los Angeles Long Beach Glendale ranks fifth, thanks to its still-vast aerospace footprint and the emergence of the technologyintensive segment of the motion picture industry. The area has a large university research base, with world-class institutions including Cal Tech, UCLA and USC. They provide great depth in medical research, especially in the biotech area. Los Angeles is the top tech pole in navigational, measuring, electromedical and control instruments manufacturing. This sub-sector employed 36,200 local workers in Los Angeles is the headquarters of Northrop Grumman, and Boeing retains major operations in the area. The metro area is thus fifth in aerospace products and parts manufacturing, with 38,000 jobs. Clearly, the inclusion of motion picture and video in our definition of high-tech industries boosts LA s position in the rankings, but it makes sense in light of the field s growing importance as a generator of value-added in high technology. Los Angeles employs 32 percent of North Americans who work in motion pictures. The Dallas Plano Irving, Texas metro division is sixth on the tech pole index. Its strengths lie in information and communications technology hardware and data processing services. Overall, high tech employed 187,700 workers in 2007, for a concentration 50 percent above the North American average. Dallas is second in telecom, with major operations of Verizon as well as AT&T s regional headquarters. Placing third in communications equipment manufacturing, the metro is renowned for its Dallas-Richardson telecom corridor. And with Texas Instruments as its anchor, the metro places sixth on the semiconductor and other electronic component manufacturing tech pole index. The Dallas campus of the University of Texas has an outstanding engineering program that provides homegrown talent to local industry. Since 2003, Dallas has jumped a spot (to second place) in data processing, hosting and related services. A number of data processing centers are located here, with Electronic Data Systems as the anchor. San Diego Carlsbad San Marcos is home to the world s most geographically dense biotech cluster, with a strong position in telecom hardware and services, and several other fields. San Diego employed 136,400 in high-tech sectors in 2007, 80 percent above the average North American concentration. The metro area placed in the top 10 in a total of four high-tech sectors. San Diego s biotech network is anchored by the Scripps Research Institute, the Salk Institute for Biomedical Sciences, the Burnham Institute and the University of California (San Diego). Its research institutes and firms receive a disproportionate share of National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation basic research funding. The highest-profile biotech company is Amylin Pharmaceuticals, but dozens of mid-sized biotech firms and numerous start-ups are located here, too. Qualcomm is the major player in the communication chips, while AT&T gives San Diego a presence in telecommunications. San Diego s neighbor to the north, Santa Ana Anaheim Irvine (Orange County), is eighth on the tech pole index, a jump of three 88 The Milken Institute Review

7 Artificial intelligence research, Cambridge george steinmetz/corbis places since Medical equipment manufacturing, medical and diagnostic labs as well as measuring, electromedical and control instruments manufacturing are key drivers here. But the presence of Broadcom makes it a key player in communication chips, too. Santa Ana ranks among the top 10 in seven categories and exceeds the North American concentration in a remarkable 16 categories. Part of the greater New York City metro, New York White Plains Wayne places ninth on the overall tech pole list. While the area is not particularly known for high technology, it does employ 262,000 high-tech workers tens of thousands more than Seattle or San Jose. New York is second only to Los Angeles in motion pictures and video industries. It is also a key location for Internet portals, placing the area third in other information technology services. San Francisco San Mateo Redwood City just made it into the top 10 in 2007, slipping from eighth in However, the creativity of its entrepreneurs and high skill level of its workforce give the metro the capacity to constantly reinvent itself. Biotech heavyweight Genentech was initially built around local university research. The city ranks fifth among software publishers with major operations of Electronic Arts and Oracle. San Francisco is a major hub of data processing, hosting and related services, where it ranks seventh. And it ranks just behind the DC metro in high-tech services. The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania portion of the Greater Philadelphia metro area was 11th on the tech pole index in 2007, up two slots from The area hosts a number of pharmaceutical companies including Merck, Wyeth and GlaxoSmithKline, as well as biotech firms including Cephalon. Philadelphia ranked seventh in scientific R&D services, up from 14th in 2003 thanks to the biotech industry s rising star. Philadelphia is strong in medical devices as well. Atlanta Sandy Springs Marietta was 12th on the tech pole index, thanks in large part to its first-place ranking in telecommunications. 89

8 AT&T s Mobility division is the biggest local player in telecom; all told, the sector employs 37,900 workers in Atlanta. Edison, New Jersey, ranked 13th in It placed third in pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing, with 16,800 workers. Major players include Bristol-Myers Squibb and Johnson & Johnson. Edison is a top-10 performer in telecommunications as well. The Chicago portion of the Greater Chicago metro finished 14th. It ranks among the top 10 in telecom and computer systems design and related services. Altogether, some 200,000 local workers were employed in hightech industries in The two biggest hightech firms: Motorola and Abbott Labs. Toronto is Canada s highest-ranking tech center, coming in 15th in North America. And with 157,400 high-tech sector jobs, it ranks 10th in terms of absolute size. Privatepublic research collaborations involving the University of Toronto and McMaster University have propelled the metro s emergence as an attractive place for biopharmaceutical firms. Major players include GlaxoSmith- Kline and Apotex. Toronto is Canada s leading center of computer systems design and related services, a category in which it ranks eighth in North America. The metro area has nurtured a thriving film cluster as well. Oakland Fremont Haywood is 16th on the tech pole index for Although it isn t in the top-10 in any of the 19 categories, it exceeds the average high-tech job concentration in 16 of them. Major tech employers include Oracle and Sybase. Minneapolis St. Paul Bloomington, 17th on the tech pole index, owes its position to medical devices giants Medtronic and Boston Scientific. Overall, Minneapolis has a higher than average concentration of high-tech jobs in nine categories. Denver Aurora comes in at 18th place on the tech pole index, thanks in large part to its fourth-place finish in telecom. Qwest Communications is the Malaria research, Rockville largest employer in the metro area. Montréal is Canada s second metro to make the top 20, coming in at 19th place and up eight spots since Montréal boasts more than 127,000 high-tech jobs, with aerospace as a primary driver. Bombardier is headquartered here, contributing nearly 21,000 aerospace-related jobs, but Pratt & Whitney also has a large presence. Montréal s aerospace cluster is supported by its formidable research capacity, a mix of four major universities and 197 research centers. Austin Round Rock, arguably the quintessential 21st-century knowledge-based community, rounds out the top 20. Among hightech industries, its highest concentration is in tim sloan/afp/getty images 90 The Milken Institute Review

9 computer and electronic product manufacturing. Dell is headquartered here. But it is also favored by major presences of IBM, Applied Materials, Advanced Micro Devices, Flextronics and Samsung Austin Semiconductor. mexican states To create a set of North American rankings that included Mexico, we had to utilize data at the state level rather than the metro level. Mexican data was only available through 2003, so we include it in the North American rankings only for that year. Note that use of state-level data pushes up total employment and wages, but also reduces the overall concentration of jobs in each sector. Baja California, the state that makes up the northern half of the Baja California peninsula and includes the cities of Tijuana, Mexicali and Ensenada, is the top-ranking Mexican state in the tech pole index. Placing 15th in North America (in 2003), it employed 104,000 in high-tech sectors. Foreign firms have been attracted by the Maquiladora Decree of 1989 that granted them a variety of incentives to manufacture in border areas for the purposes of export. Because most products from these factories are intended for export to the United States or Canada, they are located in zones close to the U.S. border, and Baja California is a clear beneficiary. The region was the top tech pole in audio and video equipment manufacturing. Casio, Honeywell, Sanyo and Sony have electronic components factories in Baja California, giving the area second place (after San Jose) on the tech pole ranking for the manufacturing of semiconductors and other electronic components. Baja s concentration of employment in this category actually exceeds that of San Jose, although it is largely made up of lower-wage production line jobs. Baja California led North America in medical equipment and supplies manufacturing with 22,200 jobs, 16 times the average concentration in North America. In 2003, Baja California s medical product cluster was home to 60 companies, of which two-thirds were divisions of U.S. firms, many of them based just across the border in San Diego. Baja was also in the top 10 in communications equipment. Overall, Baja California has more than three times the average North American job concentration in high-tech industries. The Distrito Federal, which encompasses Mexico City and its immediate surrounding area, was the second-ranking Mexican state, placing 20th overall in North America in The DF was the top tech pole for telecommunications in North America in 2003, thanks largely to the location of giant Telefónicas de México (Telmex). The concentration of telecommunications in the region is nearly three-and-one-half times greater than average in North America and telecom employment (82,100) was nearly double that of second-ranking Atlanta. The Distrito Federal ranked sixth in pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing in North America, with 33,700 local workers 13,000 more than the second-highest ranking North American metro. In addition to the presence of Mexican pharmaceutical manufacturers, the state is also home to Abbott Labs and the German firm Bayer, each of which employ more than 2,500 workers in the state. Filmmaking is highly concentrated around Mexico City, resulting in its sixthplace rank in North America. The ability to export Mexican film and television products to other parts of Latin America as well as a large home market has given the industry cluster around Mexico City a comparative advantage. Total high-tech employment in the DF is 17 percent more concentrated than the North American average. m 91