A new study released by a bipartisan policy and political network of technology CEOs that promotes the growth of the innovation economy, reports that there are now roughly 466,000 jobs in the “app cconomy” across the United States.
The study, sponsored by TechNet and conducted by Dr. Michael Mandel of South Mountain Economics, found that those jobs are spread throughout the nation.
New York and its surrounding counties were judged the top region for jobs related to application development, although San Francisco and San Jose together substantially exceeded New York. California topped the list of states with nearly one in four jobs, though Georgia, Florida, and Illinois were all cited as home to a significant portion of those jobs.
In fact, more than two-thirds of employment related to the sector were outside of California and New York, with results also suggesting that the location and number of app-related jobs are likely to shift greatly in the years ahead.
“America’s app economy, which had zero jobs just five years ago before the iPhone was introduced – demonstrates that we can quickly create economic value and jobs through cutting-edge innovation,” TechNet President and CEO Rey Ramsey said.
“Today, the app cconomy is creating jobs in every part of America, employing hundreds of thousands of U.S. workers today and even more in the years to come,” Ramsey added.
The study noted that conventional tracking methods have not kept up with the new employment segment.
“Conventional employment numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics are not able to track such a new phenomenon because this economic ecosystem is so new. The research analyzed detailed information from The Conference Board Help – Wanted OnLine database, a comprehensive and up-to-the-minute compilation of want ads, to estimate the number of jobs in the app economy,” the study revealed.
The total number of app economy jobs includes jobs at “pure” app firms such as Zynga as well as app-related jobs at large companies such as Electronic Arts, Amazon.com, and AT&T, as well as app “infrastructure” jobs at core firms such as Google, Apple and Facebook. In addition, the total includes employment spillover to the rest of the economy.
