DATE: Saturday, September 6, 1997           TAG: 9709060395

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY AKWELI PARKER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   47 lines

HIGH-TECH WORKERS FUEL STATE'S ECONOMIC GROWTH SECTOR LINKED TO 63% OF GAINS, STUDY FINDS

Virginia's high-tech workers are fueling a disproportionately high amount of the state's economic growth, according to a study by the College of William and Mary's Bureau of Business Research in Williamsburg.

The state's high-tech sector accounted for 63 percent of the growth in the gross state product between 1991 and 1996, according to the study, prepared for Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology and released Friday.

The study ``reaffirms that Virginia must dedicate its resources to technology in order to maintain and grow this thriving economy,'' said Robert G. Templin Jr., president of CIT.

In dollar terms, technology industries churned out $8.3 billion of the $13.2 billion growth in the gross state product over the period of the study.

And yet the high-tech sector accounted for only 13 percent of the Commonwealth's job growth, the study found.

``Much of this increase is accounted for by the fact that high-tech jobs pay 66 percent more on average than jobs in other Virginia industries,'' said Roy Pearson, professor of business administration and director of William and Mary's business research bureau.

In 1996, technology-based wages averaged $46,403, compared with an average of $25,624 for all other Virginia industries.

Hampton Roads got a mixed bag of results during the study period, recording a 7.2 percent dip in high-tech employment but an 8.9 percent increase in wages and salaries. That compares with a 7.3 percent technology employment increase statewide and a 36.1 percent wage increase in high-tech jobs.

Part of the region's lag can be attributed to the study's inclusion of the shipbuilding industry and declining parts of the area's manufacturing sector as ``technology-based'' industries, Pearson said.

There's good news for the region as well.

``What many people consider to be the core of high tech,'' jobs in information technology, took off by nearly 50 percent in Hampton Roads, from about 6,000 at the start of the study to more than 9,000 in 1996, Pearson said.

The study categorized jobs based on Standard Industrial Classification codes, by which all companies are classified into industries.

The growth spurt isn't likely to abate soon, at least not within the next five years, according to Pearson.

Companies are investing in computers and electronic equipment at a rate of 10 percent a year, said Pearson, ``and it's showing no sign of slowing down.''

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