Report: Mass. misses mark on tech sector growth
Massachusetts added nearly 18,000 new high tech jobs from 2010 to 2013, short of the goal set by industry leaders, who are appealing to Beacon Hill leaders for policy changes that they say will make Massachusetts more competitive.
The Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council in 2010 called on public and private sector officials to help add 100,000 jobs to the innovation economy by 2020.
Ahead of its annual meeting Friday in Boston, the council released its "State of Technology" report, which noted recent changes in the state's political and business leadership structures and said job additions since 2010 fell shy of the goal of nearly 26,000 for the period.
In addition to recommending transportation infrastructure upgrades to address weaknesses exposed this winter, the council in its report called for "more balanced tax policy," reductions in health care and energy costs, more affordable housing, adoption of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act and reforms to the independent contractor law.
"Technology advances quickly," the council, which represents 55 member companies, concluded in its report. "There are many regions across the country and around the world competing for a chance to be leaders in the next technological era. Massachusetts is resurgent, but to be a dominant force that builds on its current leadership standing, the state must be smart and play to its strengths."
Tom Hopcroft, president of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, said the report is attempting to key off the council's desire to become more politically active following the industry's successful push in 2014 for the repeal of new sales tax of software services.
"We're having some growth but there's still some potential there," he said.
Hopcroft said he wasn't too concerned about missing the job goal because many of policies and programs put in place in recent years will take time to yield results. The report also suggests filling jobs has as much to do with reaching the goal as industry growth.
Without an ample supply of talent, industry leaders say companies like Google will continue to spread jobs around to corporate campuses around the country.
"One hundred thousand jobs turns out not to be that hard," Hopcroft said. "The challenge we have is filling the jobs. We have companies that would love to hire here, but they're putting jobs elsewhere. So the question becomes, how do you build a pipeline so if they want to have an opportunity to participate in a sector of knowledge jobs they can."
To make Massachusetts a more attractive place to root those jobs, Hopcroft said the state needs to do more to introduce students, particularly women and minorities, at a young age to computer sciences. The council plans to feature women in influential tech sector posts at its meeting Friday at the Federal Reserve Bank.
He also called for more investment in higher education and programs that help create more pathways for mid-career workers to get the skills training they need for jobs in high tech, internships and strategies for retaining international students.
The technology sector currently employs 214,650 people in Massachusetts, representing 19 percent of the workforce and a quarter of the state's payroll with $160 billion in economic output, according to the council's report. Women hold just 29 percent of the computer and math-based occupations across all sectors.
In addition to education, Hopcroft said he hopes Gov. Charlie Baker considers the impact an improved and expanded public transit system would have on economic growth if skilled tech workers, such as those coming out of the University of Massachusetts Lowell, had quicker, more reliable transit options to jobs in Cambridge.
While the council's legislative agenda is broad and Hopcroft could not pinpoint any one piece of legislation they would spearhead, it doesn't hurt that one of the council's biggest champions might be newly appointed Senate Ways and Means Chairwoman Karen Spilka.
Spilka, an Ashland Democrat, co-chairs the Tech Caucus on Beacon Hill with Gloucester Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante. Hopcroft, who is also a member of the Board of Higher Education, listed Spilka as one of the most active members of the Legislature in council affairs and events.
Baker, during a speech this week at Mass Insights Global Massachusetts 2024 conference, marveled at the transformation of Kendall Square since his college days in the 1970s in Cambridge. He also applauded the collaboration taking place between higher education and business at places like UMass Lowell and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and called for more public-private partnerships.
Highlighting industries such as digital health and cybersecurity as areas for growth, Baker pointed to continued investments his administration is making to finish the "last mile" to bring broadband service to unserved communities in the western part of the state and support advanced manufacturing training.
The "State of Technology" report cited more than 20 university incubators and accelerators in Massachusetts, and Baker said promoting even more ventures will create "engines for the region" in which they are located.
Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the report lists Massachusetts as having the greatest concentration of tech sector jobs in the country, slightly ahead of Virginia, Washington and California. Massachusetts was third behind California and Washington for highest wages paid in the sector at an average of nearly $116,000 per year.
"We're a region that's really good at a lot of things," Hopcroft said. "We need put those things together and play to our strengths and get people to fully appreciate the commercial impact and value of tech as well as the opportunities we can bring to so many people and elevate their earnings."
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