CALIFORNIA RULES U.S. JOB MARKET IN SCIENCE, ENGINEERING

By Gary Robbins12:01 a.m.Sept. 2, 2013Updated2:21 p.m.Aug. 30, 2013

California dominates the nation’s science and engineering industries, employing almost 14 percent of all people who work in those fields, mostly in and around San Diego, Los Angeles and the Silicon Valley, says a new report from the National Science Foundation.

The group analyzed 2011 Census Bureau data and found that 786,653 of the 5,677,410 people who hold jobs in these “S&E” sectors work in California, in jobs ranging from university biology professor to government chemist to lab technician at a private company.

Here’s a closer look at the country’s six largest clusters:
1. Santa Clara County

The region is better known to many as Silicon Valley, the home of such nameplate companies as Apple, Facebook and Google. The county has 143,329 S&E workers, almost 78,000 of whom work in computer and mathematical sciences. The region also ranks first in the subcategory of engineering, with 53,129 workers.

2. Los Angeles

California’s biggest city has 141,719 S&E workers — only 1,610 fewer than Santa Clara County. L.A. is home to such well-heeled S&E institutions as UCLA, USC and Caltech, as well as NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the film industry, a leader in technological innovation. More than half of L.A.’s S&E workforce (73,806) are in computer and mathematical sciences.

3. New York City

The Big Apple has 121,590 S&E workers, almost 65 percent of whom work in computer and mathematic sciences. The city leads the nation in that category (with 78,747 positions). Like Los Angeles, many S&E workers are employed by large research universities, such as Columbia. But employment is broad-based, with lots of positions at engineering companies and in the tech sector.

4. Houston

The city’s name is synonymous with the energy industry, which accounts for many of its 118,263 S&E jobs. More than 51,000 of those people work in engineering. Houston also is a national leader in biomedical research, and is a hub for high-tech companies.

5. Denver

The Mile High City has 99,247 S&E workers, more than 60 percent of whom work in computer and mathematical science. Many of those employees work in the energy and telecommunications industries, where Denver is particularly strong.

6. San Diego County

The region has 91,288 S&E workers, most of whom are spread out across the life sciences, biotech and telecommunications. The figures are expected to rise. UC San Diego, which obtained almost $1 billion for research last year, is preparing to grow. Qualcomm is already doing so.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/sep/02/tp-california-rules-us-job-market-in-science/