By MARCUS RAUHUT Public Opinion Staff writer
CHAMBERSBURG -- James Sulfare had to find a bigger office because business was taking off so quickly.
His Chambersburg-based tech firm, Solinkit, is seeing business grow by about 400 to 500 percent.
"We're looking to expand and add 2 or 3 more employees because we're overwhelmed. With the changes in technology, you have to keep up," Sulfare said. "What do you have to do to go to the next stage? That's what's driving growth."
Jobs have been slow to return from the economic downturn, but new figures from the Census Bureau show that high-tech jobs have been growing more quickly than the overall employment in Pennsylvania.
When you think of high-tech jobs, you likely think of Silicon Valley in California, Route 128 in Boston, or the Research Triangle in North Carolina. Those types of jobs tend to gravitate toward major research institutions.
But Pennsylvania also has a growing number of high-tech jobs, which increased 1.6 percent from the third quarter of 2009 to the same time in 2010, according to the Census Bureau. Total job growth statewide was only about 1.3 percent.
In Pennsylvania, most high-tech jobs are concentrated around Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and State College.
Outside of those areas, Franklin County had one of the highest concentrations of high-tech jobs among more rural counties.
"In most cases, there are research universities that are really developing the new technologies and small businesses and startups spin off and take advantage of that and commercialize it. In our area, we are more akin to applied technologies than a research and development center," said L. Michael Ross, president of Franklin County Area Development Corp.
That means that in this area, the high-tech jobs are more likely to play some kind of support role to other large employers, such as the county's large original equipment manufacturers.
In 2009, Harrisburg Area Community College brought training in mechatronics -- a high-demand technical field combining mechanical systems and electronic controls -- to the Franklin County Career and Technology Center.
"It requires a different level of technician," Ross said. "We're trying to capitalize on our anchor industries as a way to attract some of the those folks here."
In the case of Solinkit, about 60 percent of the firm's business comes from outside the area -- particularly Philadelphia, where the business was based until it moved to Franklin County to take advantage lower taxes and overhead.
The company has worked with Fortune 500 companies, and does a lot of work in cloud computing and in the medical industry and electronic medical records. In a recent project, Sulfare wrote software for cameras used in law enforcement.
As technology changes, employers need people who understand the new technology infrastructure.
"Technology is changing so quickly that graduates coming out of college are flipped on their head because they're still learning the old stuff. The new stuff isn't even in the text books yet," Sulfare said. "You have to be in the field to understand where we're going."
For tech startups, access to seed capital, including through venture capital or angel investors, is critical to attracting new companies.
"From our perspective, the fact that we and other organizations are attempting to grow angel networks and angel funds, high-tech entrepreneurs will come where the money is," said Liz Wilson, marketing director for Ben Franklin Technology Partners. "As those programs are established, and people know there's investment capital, that's what attracts them."
Ben Franklin Technology Partners provides early stage funding and business support services to emerging technology-based companies.
Wilson said indicators over the past year have been encouraging.
"I think we in Pennsylvania are doing a lot of things to attract high-tech companies," she said. "The activity we've invested in during the past year has been really good. New business technology incubators are springing up and there's more mentoring."
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