Washington region has the most ‘knowledge’ workers

Monday, March 26, 2007

Washington region has the most ‘knowledge’ workers

But demand outstrips supply in health industry, says new report by Greater Washington Initiative

by Kevin J. Shay | Staff Writer

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The Washington, D.C., region, including suburban Maryland, has more technology, health care and other ‘‘knowledge” employees per capita than other large metropolitan areas, according to a report released Monday by the Greater Washington Initiative.

But even with the number of health care workers in the region expected to grow by 18 percent from 2005 to 2014, a shortage of nurses and other medical workers should still plague the economy in coming years, the report says.

In Maryland, the shortage of nurses alone is expected to number more than 6,000 this year and reach more than 17,000 by 2012, according to a separate report by a commission under the Maryland Board of Nursing.

The Greater Washington Initiative, a regional economic development organization that works to attract businesses to suburban Maryland, the District and Northern Virginia, defines knowledge workers as employees who ‘‘use, analyze and develop ideas and information at work.” Examples include computer programmers, research scientists, physicians, nurses, medical therapists, engineers, lawyers, Realtors and human resources managers.

The Washington region has 18,680 knowledge workers per 100,000 residents, more than areas that also have more than 1 million residents, such as San Francisco-San Jose, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Boston. The local region also has a higher median household income at $74,710 and a larger percentage of employees with at least a bachelor’s degree at 45.9 percent than the other large metro areas.

The development of information-based businesses is a key component to an area continuing to add jobs, said Tim Priest, executive director of the Greater Washington Initiative. ‘‘Regions with a concentration of knowledge workers are best poised for future growth,” he said.

The growth rate of the region’s knowledge workforce, which hit about 20 percent between 1999 and 2005, is expected to slow to 16 percent from 2005 to 2014.

The region has many more job openings in information technology, education, accounting and health care than graduates in those fields from 50 area colleges and universities, the study found.

In 2005, there were 1,310 health care graduates who earned at least a two-year associate’s degree and 5,610 openings. There were 4,330 graduates with at least an associate’s in information technology-related fields and 9,600 openings that year.

Employees from other regions help meet the demand, the report says.