State Among High-Tech Leaders

Connecticut has enormous economic potential and nowhere is that clearer than our status as a nationwide leader in technological advances and innovation.
A recent Information Technology and Innovation Foundation report compared the Nutmeg state to the other 49 states.

ITIF ranked Connecticut in the top 10 of all states in vital areas like high-capacity broadband coverage, high percentage of STEM workers, higher IT share of all services exports, more patent filers, and patents per worker.
The state was strong in all of the report’s 20 key indicators, close to and even exceeding the U.S. average.
“All [five congressional] districts in Connecticut have some kind of tech-driven activity occurring locally,” said ITIF president Robert Atkinson.
“This should serve as a signal to every member of Congress from Connecticut and the rest of the country that tech matters to their states and districts, so they should support broad-based, bipartisan policies to spur further innovation and growth at home and across the nation.”
So it’s not just Silicon Valley and Boston receiving all the hype; Connecticut too is recognized as a national hot spot in tech innovation.
The challenge for Connecticut is exploiting this advantage to create more jobs, keeping and attracting young, technologically apt talent, and building upon an already solid foundation.
ITIF’s findings match the Milken Institute’s 2016 State Technology and Science Index, released in October, which ranked Connecticut sixth overall.

---

Pete Gioia is an economist with CBIA. Follow him on Twitter @CTEconomist.