A new report from TechNet, an industry lobbying group, highlights the impact immigrants have on Washington state's tech workforce.
According to the report, immigrants make up 27.2% of the state's science, technology, engineering and math workers but just 14.9% of its total population.
"With 67% of all jobs in the state requiring a post-secondary degree, and demand for educated and skilled workers exceeding supply by 3 million jobs, it is clear that Washington’s educational capacity has been insufficient to meet skill demand," the report says. "This problem can be mitigated by facilitating high-skilled immigration for Washington and the U.S. at large. If reform is implemented, high-skilled immigrants in Washington will contribute greatly to both the state’s tech sector and the broader economy."ate
TechNet "promotes the growth of the innovation economy," according to its website, and its members include Amazon, Zillow, Meta, Apple and Google. The group lobbies at both the state and federal level in support of issues like diversity, smart infrastructure and autonomous vehicles.
In its report, TechNet noted immigrants in Washington pay more than $15 billion in taxes every year, and the state has almost 81,000 immigrant entrepreneurs. Overall, the report found tech employment makes up 11.2% of the total workforce.
TechNet analyzed data from the Computing Technology Industry Association's 2020 Cyberstates report, as well as data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the National Center for Education Statistics.
Although the number of tech jobs in Washington increased by more than 5,000 in 2020, in-state schools graduated only 2,550 students with bachelor's degrees in computer science, according to the report.
"Given that the state’s foreign-born workers are highly educated and qualified, with median wages and graduate education levels surpassing the national average, high-skilled immigration will serve as a crucial opportunity for Washington to continue its growth both in the tech sector and economy at large," the report said.
