The high tech industry has shifted gears to become an outcomes-based market. When a business takes a digital-first approach, then it can compete on the strength of its business technology. That means the company can create new efficiencies without sacrificing its agility. It is why investments through this industry are becoming inseparable from corporate strategy.
This rapid evolution toward providing outcomes to multiple industries creates some unique challenges. Firms must move away from using buzzwords and jargon so that everyone can understand the challenges and issues they face. The days of sending out an email blast and fast scalability are gone. Everyone expects personalized treatment today, and that is why the high tech industry has what seems like unlimited potential.
The high tech industry provides high concentrations of workers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. These occupations represent 6.1% of wage and salary jobs in the United States. It is noticeably higher at 7.4% for those producing goods rather than 5.9% in providing services.
Important High Tech Industry Statistics
#1. The management of companies and enterprises is responsible for over 2.2 million jobs and $635.5 billion in output to lead all high tech industries in the United States. Wired telecommunications carriers contribute another $366 billion, while computer systems and design add $355 billion. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
#2. Management positions in STEM-related high tech industries provide a median wage of $131,410 in the United States, which is about $40,000 higher than similar positions outside of this designation. Every occupation provides a premium of at least 14.3% when high tech designations are present. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
#3. High tech industries account for 9.9% of the total wage and salary employment in the United States each year. Since 1996, this share has stayed consistent within a bubble between 9.2% to 10.1%, even during two notable recessions. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
#4. About 14.5 million jobs are available in the United States because of the activities generated by today’s high tech industry. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
#5. About 2.4 million people have employment in Europe through high-tech manufacturing, representing 1.1% of total employment. (Eurostat).
#6. Ireland leads the way in Europe for high tech industry development, with 2.8% of positions falling into this category. Lithuania, Latvia, and Cyprus have the lowest number of opportunities at 0.4%. (Eurostat)
#7. Although high tech and manufacturing positions fell between 2008 to 2018, the former fell by only 0.4% while the latter saw a 0.8% decrease. Knowledge-intensive positions as a subsegment saw a gain of 1.8% at the same time. (Eurostat)
#8. Out of the 35 countries observed in Europe between 2008 to 2018, 18 of them registered employment declines in high tech manufacturing. Finland experienced the largest decrease at 4.5%, followed by Portugal at 3.6%. (Eurostat)
#9. Lithuania saw the highest levels of growth for high tech industry positions at 4.5%, followed by Romania at 4.3%, Austria (2.3%), and Slovenia (2.3%). (Eurostat)
#10. About 1 out of every 3 full-time positions available in the high tech industry are filled by a woman. More women are involved in high tech manufacturing in Europe compared to standard manufacturing. (Eurostat)
#11. Over 50% of the people employed in high tech manufacturing were women in Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Estonia, and Bulgaria. (Eurostat)
#12. Approximately 83% of high tech industry employment in the United States is in a service-providing industry, which is an all-time high. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
#13. High tech firms generated about 10% of their data outside of the cloud or data center in 2019. That amount could reach as high as 75% by 2026. (Deloitte)
#14. 45% of the data generated by the Internet of Things will get stored, processed, analyzed, and used close to or on the edge of corporate networks. (Deloitte)
#15. 51% of high tech firms say that they boosted their AI investments in 2019 by at least 10%. (Deloitte)
#16. 86% of consumers say that they experience more personal loyalty to companies that take an ethical approach, but 93% prefer organizations that say they have a responsibility to provide an ethical impact on society. (Edelman)
#17. 72% of companies say that they’ve been unable to create a culture that incorporates data in meaningful ways, which is close to the 69% that report an inability to create data-driven organizations. 53% of firms report that they’re not using data as a tangible asset right now. (Deloitte)
#18. High tech industries in the United States provided about 10% of all employment opportunities, but it was responsible for 18% of the total output in 2016. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
#19. Employment in computer science and engineering programs is growing at double the rate of the national average. (EEOC)
#20. The high tech industry employs a larger share of Caucasian/White workers (63.5% to 68.5%), Asians (5.8% to 14%), and men (52% to 64%) when compared to the overall private industry makeup in the United States. (EEOC)
#21. Whites are over-represented in the “executives” category in the high tech industry by roughly 15 percentage points than they are in the “professionals” category. (EEOC)
#22. Workers with a Hispanic origin represent 7.5% of engineering and architecture positions and 7.9% of social, physical, and life scientists. (EEOC)
#23. About half of the highly-qualified women working in high tech industries quite their jobs eventually. Only 1 out of every 4 computing jobs were held by women in 2013, which is down from 35% in 1990. (EEOC)
#24. Almost 70% of women in high tech industries say that they must prove themselves repetitively because their expertise gets questioned and their successes are discounted. (EEOC)
#25. 53% of women say that they received backlash from coworkers or supervisors because they were decisive or outspoken. Minority women are often viewed by their male counterparts as being “angry” if they refuse to conform to stereotypes. (EEOC)
#26. Almost 70% of women say that having children caused people to question their competence and commitment to their career. (EEOC)
#27. Turkey had an almost 6% increase in the average annual growth rate of knowledge-intensive positions from 2008 to 2017. Malta was the only other country to achieve a growth rate of over 4%. (Eurostat)
#28. Greece, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Latvia, and Italy all saw decreases in their availability of knowledge-intensive positions in the high tech industry. (Eurostat)
#29. The U.S. digital economy grew at an annual average rate of 5.6% between 2006 to 2016, accounting for 6.5% of the current-dollar GDP. (Bureau of Economic Analysis)
#30. Total spending on research and development projects in the high tech industry rose from $268.6 billion in 2000 to almost $500 billion in 2015. Most of the domestic expenditures from those figures come from the United States and China, with the latte significantly increasing its investments since 2000. (Brookings)
#31. IT spending on software, infrastructure, and services rose to $3.7 trillion in 2018, with 2019 figures expected to reach $3.8 trillion. (Gartner)
#32. The IT industry component of high tech grew from an annual value-add of $835 billion in 2008 to $1.48 trillion in 2017, which is a 77% increase. The services producing segment of the industry grew at 20% over the same period. (Gartner)
#33. Washington, D.C., has the highest level of high tech industry employment in the United States at 14.4%. Washington State had 13.6% of its positions in such a designation, while Massachusetts (13.1%), Virginia (12.3%), and Colorado (12%) had strong positioning. The national average is just over 10%. (SSTI)
#34. Michigan has 26% of its employment base in high tech sectors, which leads the country from a total employment sector. In three states (Hawaii, Wyoming, and Nevada), they account for less than 10% of all employment. (SSTI)
#35. South Dakota, Hawaii, Wyoming, and Arkansas have just 4% of their total employment in all high tech industries. (SSTI)
#36. Over 30% of Millennials say that they have budget or sign-off authority for enterprise technology purchases of $10,000 or more. Only 27% of Generation X’ers and 23% of Baby Boomers report having similar authority. (Arketi Group)
#37. Baby Boomers are the most likely to rely on industry analysts for advice on a high tech industry purchase (50%) than Baby Boomers (38%). (Arketi Group)
#38. Gen X’ers say that they prefer vendor websites or colleague recommendations when evaluating tech purchases. (Arketi Group)
#39. The top digital capability in 2016 was to use data to inform marketing, planning, and decision making. (Adobe)
#40. B2B digital leaders can drive up to five times more revenue growth than their peers that fall outside of the high tech industry. (McKinsey)
#41. The B2B high tech segment allocates about 15% of its overall budget to marketing tasks annually. (Deloitte)
#42. 80% of B2B tech marketers say that writing skills are either “very” or “extremely” important. Content marketing skills ranked at 78%, while digital media and data analysis came in at 77% respectively. (Spiceworks)
#43. 60% of high tech industry marketers rate the competition in their space at an 8 or higher on a scale from 1 to 10. (Ovum)
#44. 36% of high tech marketers said that they had a documented content marketing strategy, which is up from 33% from figures gathered in 2015. (Content Marketing Institute)
#45. 62% of B2B high tech marketers say that the production of engaging content is their most significant challenge. (Content Marketing Institute)
#46. The number of MarTech vendors has gone from about 150 in 2011 to almost 4,000 right now. (Brinker)
#47. About 7 people are involved in the average purchasing decision at a B2B high tech industry agency. (CEB)
#48. High tech equipment that originates from Holland is used in 90% of all of the silicon chips that get produced globally each year. ASML is the world’s leading provider of lithography machines for the semiconductor industry. (Holland Trade and Invest)
#49. Medical equipment, apparatus manufacturing, and instruments saw an 11.8% increase in China’s high tech industry in 2018. The added value of manufacturing went up over 6% YOY at 1.7 percentage points higher than any other industrial enterprise. (National Bureau of Statistics)
High Tech Industry Trends and Analysis
The employment trends for the high tech industry are expected to continue the same course that they’ve been following since the 1990s. The service-providing share of employment could reach 87% by 2030, with outputs coming close to 75% for the first time. Even though goods production employment will likely see a decline, technology upgrades should keep production levels at equal or greater states than what was achieved in 2019.
Familiar themes will continue to stay present in the high tech industry as it grows. The biggest gains may be in the XaaS sector (everything-as-a-service) as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and edge computing continue to grow as corporate priorities.
80% of high tech industry companies say that their investments in AI created an ROI of 10% or more. With even more data becoming available through the Internet of Things, these rates could push even higher than their forecasts in the next decade.
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