Software Job Growth Accelerates About 600,000 New Jobs Were Added During 1996

The software industry contributed one-sixth of all jobs created by the U.S. economy last year, and workers who took those positions earned more than twice the wage of average Americans, a new study shows.

The industry contributed about 600,000 of the 3.6 million jobs added by the economy last year, and it’s poised to create almost twice as many positions in the decade ahead, according to the Business Software Alliance, which represents the industry.

What’s more, those jobs pay an average of $60,000 a year - more than twice the national average of $27,900.

“The software industry provides among the most highly paid and highly skilled jobs in the U.S. economy,” the report said.

The study suggests that, contrary to popular conceptions, most of the jobs created by the U.S. economy in recent years aren’t for burger-flippers.

“It’s the knowledge jobs, the skilled workers in factories that companies cannot find enough of,” said John Challenger, executive vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago job placement firm.

The study’s release was timed to coincide with a visit to Washington by computer company executives, who met with lawmakers.

The software study shows the industry paid more than $36.4 billion in wages in 1996, and that’s expected to double by 2005 as employers step up hiring to meet increased demand for computer software. “There is a limited number of computer science graduate students,” Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said last week. “Anybody coming out of the background is going to find it easy to find a job.”

The American software industry grew by 12.5 percent a year over the last six years, and it’s expected to continue to expand at double-digit rates in years ahead. Employment alone should grow by 5.8 percent a year over the next eight years, according to the study.