Report: average congressional district now has about 400 high-tech startups employing around 3.4K workers, with average annual wages of ~$79K
The technology sector increasingly underpins the U.S. economy, with signs of its growth becoming more woven into local economies far outside iconic innovation hubs …
Context & Ripple Effects
This report lands months after a Brookings study found only 10 US cities had grown their share of tech jobs since 2010 — a picture of extreme geographic concentration that left most of the country without a tech economic base. The new per-district numbers complicate that framing: with roughly 400 high-tech startups and 3,400 tech workers in the average congressional district at ~$79K average wages, tech employment is a constituency everywhere, not just in the Bay Area.
The follow-on coverage suggests both things are true at once. Brookings later found [[a:976753|36 cities outside the coastal hubs, including Philadelphia, posting stronger tech job growth than before the pandemic]], even as top-end concentration persisted — and CBRE eventually ranked NYC as the top US tech talent market, overtaking the Bay Area. The district-level baseline is the floor beneath that diffusion story.
First-order effects
- Every member of Congress now represents a district with a measurable tech payroll — roughly 3,400 workers at ~$79K average wages — giving tech-sector policy a local electoral stake in all 435 districts rather than a handful of hub districts.
Second-order effects
- Non-hub cities gain a recruiting pitch against the coasts: the same Brookings follow-up showing growth in 36 cities like Philadelphia indicates startups and employers can build tech teams outside the 10 winner-take-most metros, pressuring hub wage premiums.
Third-order effects
- If the per-district baseline keeps rising, tech policy stops being a coastal special interest and becomes a broad-based economic issue — while the Brookings concentration data suggests the industry's top tier still clusters, pointing to a barbell of diffuse employment and concentrated power.
The trend: US tech employment is diffusing into ordinary congressional districts and mid-sized cities, even as the largest talent markets continue concentrating at the top.