Tech industry employment up in Kansas for 2015

Kansas added more than 2,100 technology industry jobs between 2014 and 2015, according to findings from the Computing Technology Industry Association.

In its annual “Cyberstates” report, released on March 1, the information technology industry trade association outfit said the state employed 57,554 tech workers as of 2015, a 3.9 percent increase from 2014. Kansas gained a total of 2,160 tech jobs last year.

Tech industry employees last year had an average salary of just under $80,000 a year, about 85 percent higher than the average annual private sector wage ($43,800) in Kansas, according to the report.

Compared with other U.S. states, Kansas ranked 28th in tech industry employment, the report said. Postings for tech occupation job openings, however, grew nearly 10 percent, from 4,800 in the fourth quarter of 2014 to 5,300 in the fourth quarter last year, according to the report.

The telecommunications sector has the most tech industry jobs in Kansas in 2015, with about 15,600 positions. The association used information supplied by the U.S. Census Bureau and Burning Glass Technologies, a Boston-based market analytics firm, for its Kansas findings.

This story was originally published March 25, 2016 at 1:34 PM with the headline "Tech industry employment up in Kansas for 2015."