TROY ? Southeast Michigan is ranked at or near the top in technology employment, education and innovation according to a report issued Tuesday by Automation Alley.
The report, “From Rust to Resurgence: Detroit’s Regional Technology Economy,” compares 15 regions across the country. The reported was compiled by Lansing-based Anderson Economic Group LLC.
The Greater Detroit region – the Detroit-Livonia-Warren metropolitan statistical area along with the Ann Arbor MSA ? ranked first in the nation in:
Advanced automotive sector employment
Number of people working in architectural and engineering occupations.
Number of engineering and engineering technology degrees completed at colleges and universities in the region.
The ranking on tech degrees is important, said Ken Rogers, executive director of Automation Alley, because there isn’t an adequate supply in this region.
“The demand is increasing, it’s not decreasing,” Rogers said. “This falls in line with our previous tech reports, (which) illustrates we’re a tech center.”
The region ranked second out of the nine Midwest regions analyzed in the report for technology industry employment, with 210,984 jobs in 2010, 12.9 percent of the 1.63 million jobs in the region in that same year, compared with 6 percent of all jobs nationally belonging to the technology industry. The region also is becoming a front-runner in technology innovation across the country.
Greater Detroit finished third nationally in the number of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) degree completions, and third for utility patents among the Midwest regions analyzed, both of which are clear indications of innovation.
In 2010, there were 2,783 utility patents issued in the Greater Detroit region, placing it third among the Midwest regions analyzed in the report, following Chicago (2,933) and Minneapolis (2,827).
The region generated 7,748 STEM degree completions during the 2008-09 school year, third highest among the 15 regions analyzed. Engineering and engineering technologies made up the largest proportion with 4,248 completions, or 9.3 percent, followed by computer and informational sciences (3.2 percent) and biological and biomedical sciences (2.7 percent).
The region also landed in the top half of the 15 regions for total technology occupation jobs, which are tech-related jobs at nontech employers, trailing only Chicago among the Midwest regions.
The 156,400 technology occupation jobs in the region made up 8.2 percent of jobs in the region in 2011. Only 5.7 percent of all jobs nationally are in a technology occupation.
Regions selected for the report are all centers for population and industry similar to the Greater Detroit region, with some chosen based on relative location. Other regions included Chicago, Boston and Atlanta.
