San Jose Ranked No. 1 High-Tech City

S A N   F R A N C I S C O, Dec. 6 -- San Jose maintained its position as the No.1 place for high-tech jobs, but other cities with high employment growth were closing the gap.

San Jose had 252,900 high-tech jobs in the most recentstatistics, according to a study released Tuesday by the NasdaqStock Market and the American Electronics Association, a high-techtrade association.

But Boston was a close second with 234,800 high-tech jobs,followed by Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Dallas. Los Angeles, with160,500 high-tech jobs, was ranked sixth in the 1998 figures.

The Up-and-Coming Bay Area

The “Cybercities” study named San Francisco the second-fastestgrowing city in high-tech employment, with 65 percent growth over afive-year period, trailing only Colorado Springs’ 77 percentgrowth.

The Bay area is “starting to slow a bit relative to othermarkets,” said Mark Albertson, senior vice president for AeA.“There are some quality of life characteristics that may beputting the brakes on.”

Those include factors such as affordable housing,transportation, energy and education, said Michelle Montague-Bruno,a spokeswoman for the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group, whonevertheless touted the attractiveness of her region.

“You can bring folks here because of the jobs, but you’ll keepthem here because of the quality of life,” Montague-Bruno said.

The average high-tech annual salary in San Jose was $85,100,putting it second behind Seattle, where workers averaged $129,300.San Francisco high-tech wages were fourth in the nation, at anaverage of $78,400. In some areas in the country, high-tech wageswere as much as 220 percent higher than private sector wages.

The East Coast: It’s Academic

Compared to the East Coast, university research and developmentventures in Silicon Valley were falling behind.

“The Bay area lags behind in R&D, compared to many of theuniversities on the Eastern seaboard,” Albertson said.