Page 29 - Flathead Beacon // 3.30.16

BUSINESS IS PERSONAL 37
Business Monthly
TECHNOLOGY
FVCC graduate Andy Witte works at Thompson Precision.
GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
Continual Growth for the Tech Industry
Annual report shows expansion, wage increases for many Montana tech businesses, but skilled labor is still needed
ABY MOLLY PRIDDY OF THE BEACON
S THE FLATHEAD VALLEY, AND Montana as a whole, continue to adjust and adapt to a post-reces-
sion economy, the technology industry continues to be a bright spot, with strong markets, high-paying jobs, and expansion in 2015.
According to the second annual report on Montana’s high-tech industries, released by the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana in February, high-tech wages comprise about 5.2 percent of the state’s total wages, and those wages are double the overall average and higher than all but three of the state’s industries.
“Tech, in terms of the growth, is pretty remarkable,” BBER director Patrick
Barkey said. “The pay is pretty decent. It checks a lot of the boxes people are look- ing for.”
The February report was commis- sioned by the Montana High Tech Busi- ness Alliance, a member-driven group of high-tech businesses and organizations statewide that started in 2014.
Membership to the HTBA doubled in 2015, according to the report, from 101 businesses in 2014 to 202 last year. Bar- key said the survey does not account for every tech-based business in Montana, but the responses, along with govern- ment data, allow for inferences for the industry statewide.
On the whole, tech is growing, Barkey said, but it is not yet a massive industry. Regardless, it’s an industry full of opti- mism about its future. According to the
survey, HTBA members expect to add 940 new jobs in 2016, representing a 19.3 percent increase. The average salary for HTBA businesses is $56,800, and those businesses expect to increase wages by 5 percent in 2016.
Part of what makes the technol- ogy industry tough to pin down is the dynamic de nition of a tech business. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics con- siders a business high-tech if it employed a high proportion of scientists, engineers, and technicians; had a high proportion of research and development employment; produced a high-tech product; or used high-tech production methods.
With this de nition, the BBER report found that Montana’s tech industry saw $916 million in wages in 2015, up 4.5 per- cent from 2014’s $867 million.
Barkey said tech’s proliferation can be seen in other mainstay industries, such as wood products.
“If you look at the way the wood prod- ucts industry does with tech, there’s some gee-whiz things going on there that most people don’t know about,” he said.
One of the largest hurdles facing high- tech businesses in Montana is lling the jobs with skilled workers. Twenty-three percent of the HTBA businesses said attracting talent was the largest imped- iment to growth. Another 17.7 percent said there’s a need to educate Montana’s workforce for these jobs.
In the Flathead, the shuddering econ- omy brought on by the recession trans- lated to new course o erings at Flathead
CONTINUED ON PAGE 31
MARCH 30, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
29