San Diego's Technology Workers Build Innovative Development

Technology workers are an important part of the American economy and represent one of the fastest growing occupations in the country. Technology workers feed the business and economic engines within San Diego but  face some wider challenges. Three technology executives with a a combined 4 billion dollars in revenue and 9,000 employees  highlighted the state of local talent in San Diego on Connect (1). There are a few additional ideas that can further the conversation.

A great portion of society relies on technology and the easy transference of information and resources.  Knowledge intensive industries need this easy flow of information that moves within and between companies. Technology workers help to foster that transference and use information to its maximum extent ensuring information develops other sectors.

Technology workers are important for modern companies and help push industries to develop at a faster rate. For example, investment in IT contributes to worker manufacturing productivity (Chaodong, et. al., 2011). Workers that are able to update their skills and use technology effectively  will speed up the rate of production.

Developing home grown talent was not always on the priority list. Because supply was not always sufficient companies outsourced many of their technology worker needs to cheaper economies (Shao & David, 2007).  Having a sufficient local supply skilled technology workers helps keep jobs local.

It should also be remember that having the right kind of local talent in growing industries makes San Diego more ripe for business investment. The type of highly skilled and information intensive businesses in the area need a solid funnel of people to manage the transference of that information. Companies invest in places where the components to growth can be found.

Despite these apparent advantages there are other problems beyond the technology sector itself. With recruiting and developing technology workers that are willing to stay in San Diego. People may love the beaches but hate the cost of living near those beaches. The executives mentioned high state taxes, poor infrastructure, high cost of housing, small airport, and the slow pace of government responsiveness to issues.  The problems cited are more on a level that impacts multiple businesses versus a specific industry but nevertheless should be calculated into corporate strategies.

Chaodon, H. et. al. (2011). Information technology investment and manufacturing worker productivity. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 52 (2). 

Shao, B. & David, J. (2007). The impact of offshore outsourcing on IT workers in developed countries. Communications of the ACM, 50 (2).