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Workforce
Quartiles | Findings | Description
Computer specialists as share of workforce: 2003
Computer specialists as share of workforce: 2003
Quartiles
Computer specialists as share of workforce: 2003*
| 1st Quartile (9.61%–2.10%) |
2nd Quartile (2.04%–1.67%) |
3rd Quartile (1.53%–1.20%) |
4th Quartile (1.18%–0.63%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | Arizona | Alabama | Alaska |
| Colorado | Florida | Hawaii | Arkansas |
| Connecticut | Illinois | Indiana | Idaho |
| Delaware | Missouri | Iowa | Louisiana |
| District of Columbia | Nebraska | Kansas | Maine |
| Georgia | New Hampshire | Kentucky | Mississippi |
| Maryland | New York | Michigan | Montana |
| Massachusetts | North Carolina | New Mexico | Nevada |
| Minnesota | Ohio | Oklahoma | North Dakota |
| New Jersey | Oregon | South Dakota | South Carolina |
| Utah | Pennsylvania | Tennessee | West Virginia |
| Virginia | Rhode Island | Vermont | Wyoming |
| Washington | Texas | Wisconsin | |
| *States in alphabetical order, not data order.
SOURCES: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates; and Local Area Unemployment Statistics. See |
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Findings
- In the United States, 2.7 million individuals, or 2.0% of the workforce, were employed as computer specialists in 2003.
- Individual states showed significant differences in the intensity of computer-related operations in their economies, with 0.63% to 3.94% of their workforce employed in computer-related occupations in 2003.
- There was a significant concentration of computer-intensive occupations in the District of Columbia, where the indicator value of 9.61% was affected by the large number of individuals who specialize in computer work there but live in neighboring states.
Description
This indicator shows the extent to which a state’s workforce makes use of specialists with advanced computer training. Computer specialists are identified from 10 standard occupational codes that include computer and information scientists, programmers, software engineers, support specialists, systems analysts, database administrators, and network and computer system administrators. States with higher values may indicate a state workforce that is better able to thrive in an information economy or to embrace and utilize computer technology.
The location of computer specialists reflects where the individuals work and is based on estimates from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, a cooperative program between the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and state employment security agencies. The size of a state’s civilian workforce is estimated from the BLS Current Population Survey, which assigns workers to a location based on residence. Because of this difference and the sample-based nature of the data, estimates for sparsely populated states and the District of Columbia may be imprecise.
