One shining beacon in the nation’s long and uneven economic recovery has been the “advanced industries sector,” the creative cauldron of edgy and sometimes astonishing new technologies ranging from robotics and 3-D printing to the digitization of materials in practically every field.
About 50 industries fall into this category. They range from auto and aerospace manufacturing to energy extraction and production to high-tech services such as computer software and design. A common thread throughout these industries is a deep involvement with technology research and development as well as science, engineering and math. And together, they have anchored the post-recession employment recovery.
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This week Brookings published a listing of the 15 hottest metropolitan areas for advanced industries, largely based on those industries’ share of total metro-area employment.
“Their dynamism is going to be a central component of any future revitalized U.S. economy,” wrote Mark Muro, a senior fellow and director of policy for the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings Institution, and four of his associates. “As such, these industries encompass the country’s best shot at supporting innovative, inclusive and sustainable growth.”
“Modest in size, the sector packs a massive economic punch,” they added.
As of 2013, these 50 advanced industries employed 12.3 million U.S. workers – or about 9 percent of total U.S. employment. Even with that relatively modest employment base, the sector generated $2.7 trillion annually – or 17 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. At the same time the sector employs 80 percent of all U.S. engineers, performs 90 percent of private-sector research and development and accounts for 60 percent of U.S. exports, according to the analysis.
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Not surprisingly, cities and metropolitan areas across the country are clamoring to attract and nurture advanced-industry businesses. Detroit, for example, which is just emerging from an historic municipal bankruptcy, is reinventing itself as a new urban center of business, research and innovation, thanks largely to a unique public, private and philanthropic coalition. Last fall, construction crews began laying super-high-speed fiber optics cable below downtown streets to offer advanced broadband in a major boost to the city’s technology startup scene.
Several cities on Brookings’ list – San Jose, Seattle and San Francisco – are hardly surprises. But here’s a dynamic dozen you might not know so much about:
1. Wichita, Kan.
Advanced industry share of total metro area employment: 15.5 percent (47,000 jobs).
“What Wichita lacks in advanced industry breadth it makes up for in depth,” according to Brookings. The metropolitan area’s renowned aerospace industry makes it something of a one-cluster town, yet the city also boasts secondary specializations in heavy machinery and other manufacturing.
2. Detroit, Mich.
Advanced industry share of total metro area employment: 14.8 percent (279,500 jobs).
Detroit is fast shaking off a reputation as a Rust Belt ghost town, and in the process is “marrying its industrial past to a digital future,” said Brookings. As cars become devices, Detroit is cultivating specializations in electronics, computing, and R&D services. “The result: Advanced industry employment is growing rapidly, split evenly between manufacturing and services.”
3. Washington, D.C.
Advanced industry share of total metro area employment: 13.7 percent (503,500 jobs).
The D.C. region is considered the quintessential advanced services economy. “With over 300,000 residents providing technology and consulting services to mainly government clients, no metro area except Austin has increased the size of its advanced sector faster in recent decades.” However, federal budget belt-tightening could test the resilience of the region’s model.
4. Palm Bay, Fla.
Advanced industry share of total metro area employment: 13.4 percent (26,500 jobs).
“A Sun Belt oasis of high-tech production, Florida’s ‘Space Coast’ boasts a small but potent portfolio of advanced industries primarily engaged in aerospace and defense,” according to Brookings.
5. Boston, Mass.
Advanced industry share of total metro area employment: 13.3 percent (339,000 jobs).
A wide variety of companies in diverse fields operate here, including defense, biotech, software, robotics, genomics and computer science.
6. Houston, Texas
Advanced industry share of total metro area employment: 12.8 percent (361,000 jobs).
“The world’s energy capital has diversified upstream, downstream, and sideways from its core expertise into an advanced industry powerhouse,” according to Brookings. Houston is helping to reshape global energy markets and seeking new breakthroughs in deep sea and horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.
7. San Diego, Calif.
Advanced industry share of total metro area employment: 12.3 percent (176,000 jobs).
Sun-drenched San Diego “sits at the sweet spot of technological convergence: R&D in cross-cutting disciplines like nanotechnology and genomics fuels innovation—and synergies—in life sciences, communications, microelectronics, and more,” Brookings wrote.
8. Austin, Texas
Advanced industry share of total metro area employment: 12.1 percent (106,500 jobs).
Tech-centric Austin boasts 13 advanced industries that pay on average over $100,000 per year.
9. Provo, Utah
Advanced industry share of total metro area employment: 12.0 percent (25,000 jobs).
Provo has inched ahead of Ogden and Salt Lake City with the state’s fastest-growing advanced industry sector. “Only somewhat facetiously dubbed the ‘Next Silicon Valley’ by The New Yorker, heavily tech-oriented Provo is home to two of the world’s 73 venture-backed firms with valuations of $2 billion or more,” according to Brookings.
10. Raleigh, N.C.
Advanced industry share of total metro area employment: 11.7 percent (64,500 jobs).
Raleigh combines computing power with high-tech instruments and a substantial dose of pharmaceuticals to generate one of the highest concentrations of advanced industry activity in the South.
11. Ogden, Utah
Advanced industry share of total metro area employment: 11.3 percent (26,500 jobs).
Located just north of Salt Lake, Ogden’s advanced industries have been growing at around 6 percent per year since the Great Recession. “It’s a lonely but lively outpost of auto parts manufacturing and miscellaneous heavy industry in the Mountain West,” according to Brookings.
12. Salt Lake City, Utah
Advanced industry share of total metro area employment: 11.1 percent (71,500 jobs).
“Salt Lake City anchors an advanced industry hot zone stretching the length of Utah’s Wasatch Front,” Brookings said. “It specializes in most everything related to information technology and medicine.”
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