CompTIA study finds Utah likely to lead nation in tech job growth

Brice Wallace 

Utah is projected to lead the nation in tech job growth in the next decade, according to a recently released report.

The study by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) shows the number of tech jobs in the state is expected to balloon 32 percent by the year 2033.

For comparison, CompTIA’s annual “State of the Tech Workforce” shows that tech jobs in Utah grew by 5,130 in 2022, a jump of 4.3 percent, or ninth among states. The national rate was 3.2 percent. Growth in Utah this year is expected to be 6,103 jobs, or 4.9 percent, which is projected to be second among states, behind only Wyoming’s 5.1 percent.

Utah has 123,450 people working tech jobs, placing it No. 23 among states, and its total is expected to reach 129,553 this year. The state’s tech job growth from 2021 to 2022 was No. 15 among states. For comparison, the tech job total in 2017 was 98,968 in the state.

The highest percentage of Utah tech jobs in 2022 were focused on software, programmers, web development and quality assurance, at 29,987. That figure is expected to grow 6.4 percent this year. The next-highest number was for IT support specialists and repair technicians, at 12,996.

Positions expected to see the most growth this year are in cybersecurity and systems engineering (8.3 percent), and software development, programming, web development and quality assurance (6.4 percent).

Utah’s tech sector represents 7.2 percent of the state’s overall workforce, placing it No. 9 nationally for the highest percentage.

The median wage of $83,891 for a tech worker in Utah is 108 percent higher than the median wage for all occupations in the state.

The estimated direct economic impact of the tech sector is $21.8 billion, or 10 percent of the state’s overall economic impact, putting Utah at No. 8 among states.

The report indicates that Utah has 9,286 tech companies.

While Utah has glowing numbers in most categories, it still lacks when it comes to tech employment diversity. Women account for 46 percent of the state’s overall workforce but only 22 percent of tech workers. Likewise, Hispanic or Latino workers are 14 percent of Utah’s total but 7 percent of the tech total, while black/African American workers account for 2 percent of the state’s total but only 1 percent of the tech total.

The CompTIA report indicates that the Salt Lake City metro area has 67,498 people working in tech jobs, placing it No. 27 among metros nationwide and representing 8.2 percent of the overall workforce in the area. Its growth from 2021 to 2022 totaled 2,672 jobs, or 4.1 percent, putting it No. 16 among metros. The growth this year is expected to be 3,054 jobs, No. 15 among metros, although its 4.5 percent growth rate is only behind Austin’s 5.6 percent.

The 2023 estimate of total jobs is 70,552. For comparison, tech employment in the Salt Lake City area was 55,144 in 2017.

The metro area tech sector has a $12 billion economic impact, or 10.5 percent of the area’s overall impact.

The Salt Lake metro area has 6,216 tech establishments, and growth from 2021 to 2022 was third among metro areas nationwide. Jobs in tech in the metro area pay a median of $85,476, or 95 percent higher than the median wage in the area.

Nationally, the number of tech jobs is expected to grow by 272,323 this year to reach 9.4 million. Tech direct economic output has reached $1.97 trillion, or 8.8 percent of the national economy. The median tech wage is 103 percent higher than the median wage in the U.S. The number of tech establishments is 582,120, up 7.5 percent from last year.

The full report is available at https://www.cyberstates.org/.

CompTIA is a nonprofit association for the information technology industry and workforce and is an IT certification and training body.