Software publishing continues to expand in Washington, with 3,100 jobs added in April since the year before. The expansion is driven by Microsoft. But there is also a large and growing information technology cluster.  Between the second quarter of 2005 and the second quarter of 2006, the software publishing industry expanded to 609 firms from 578 while the data processing/Internet services industries expanded to 544 firms from 498. Computer programming and computer facility management companies grew to 2,531 from 2,381 firms. Adding these industries together, employment expanded by 13.7 percent from March 2005 to March 2006.

Many large companies also have internal information services divisions. No data are available on the size of these operations, but at many banks and health services organizations they have hundreds of employees. Data center development in central Washington for Microsoft, Google and other companies is adding a new dimension to information technology in this state. Taken together, the information technology sector makes up a growing part of the Washington economy.

These industries are important not just due to their growth, but because they utilize highly skilled workers who earn higher than average wages. The independent computer and software industries pay average annual wages ranging from $67,000 to over $100,000. Comparable salaries are paid for programmers, senior data processing workers and other highly skilled information technology professionals.

Paul Sommers is a professor at the Institute of Public Service and Albers School of Business at Seattle University.