Pittsburgh Technology Council CEO Audrey Russo can’t exactly recite a litany of positive numbers off the top of her head from her organization’s State of the Industry report. This week, she had to pull over her car and pull out her copy of the report to extract some of the good news–not because she’s uninformed, but the report doesn’t reveal any overwhelming figures.
It does, however, indicate continued steady growth as well as Greater Pittsburgh being a bellwether–not a lagging indicator. Most notably, Russo says, the technology sector represents 19.4 percent of the workforce and 27.5 percent of the total payroll in a 13-county region in Southwest PA.
“We didn’t lose that many jobs and didn’t gain many jobs because people are thinking really hard before they hire people,” says Russo. “The technology that was being developed during this recession, all the solutions created are going to be highly leveraged.”
The aforementioned numbers are significant because technology companies represent only 11.2 percent of all companies in the region, meaning the sector is doing an admirable job of job creation and setting high wages.
Russo is excited by what’s going on in the region on the life sciences (8.6 percent total growth) and environmental tech (12.6 percent increase in payroll) fronts. Russo also noted a 66-percent increase in Small Business Innovation Research grants ($14.3 million). However, she tempers that with a concern about venture capital and diminished state dollars for technology investment, like the kind through Ben Franklin Technology Partners–issues faced across the Commonwealth.
“That’s what helps build companies,” she says. “We have some really good success stories and we have to continue to feed it to (legislators).”
For its part, the Council intends to stay ahead of trends and legislation. Next week alone, the Council is holding programs that include the director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and a pair of influential authors to discuss President Barack Obama’s innovation strategy.
“It’s an exciting time to be here,” says Russo. “The amount of diversity we have here is very wide and now’s the time to make it deeper.”
Source: Audrey Russo, Pittsburgh Technology Council
Writer: Joe Petrucci