Information Technology

The global information and communications technology market reached an estimated $4.7 trillion in 2022, according to International Data Corporation (IDC), a market research, analysis, and advisory firm. Software and information services will be the fastest-growing industry over the 2023-2027 forecast period, generating an 11.4 percent compound annual growth rate according to IDC. The majority of IT spending is made by businesses and enterprises.

The U.S. IT market is the largest and most sophisticated in the world, earning an estimated $1.9 trillion in revenue in 2022, according to CompTIA, an industry association. Approximately 55 percent of all information technology research and development is conducted in the United States, according to SelectUSA. Hardware, software, and services comprise 66 percent of industry expenditures, with telecommunication services making up the remaining percentage. The IT industry is one of the larger industries in the U.S. economy. According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the gross output of the digital economy was $3.7 trillion in 2021, representing 10.3 percent of the national economy. Approximately one in three U.S. IT companies (predominantly large and mid-size enterprises) conduct business internationally.

Approximately 9.4 million workers were employed in technical and nontechnical positions at IT firms and at companies, nonprofits, and government agencies that had IT departments in 2023, according to CompTIA. This number also included self-employed IT workers who worked full time. At startups, nearly all employees are programmers, software engineers, and other technical workers. As a firm grows, marketing and sales staff are hired, lowering the percentage of technical workers. The 85/15 (technical/nontechnical) worker ratio is most common at large, established companies with a big market share. Non-IT sectors that hire a large number of technical and knowledge workers include information, finance and insurance, manufacturing, government, and management consulting.

Information technology professionals are employed throughout the U.S. and the world. In the United States, CompTIA reports that the highest number of IT workers are employed in the following states:

1. California: 1,487,864
2. Texas: 867,278
3. New York: 535,457
4. Florida: 484,593
5. Virginia: 358,713
6. Washington: 347,093
7. Illinois: 325,685
8. Massachusetts: 318,631
9. Pennsylvania: 300,447
10. Georgia: 294,133

CompTIA reports that the following states will have the fastest expected IT job growth from 2023 to 2033: Utah, Wyoming, Texas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Louisiana, and Georgia.

The Forbes Global 2000 is an annual ranking of the top 2000 public companies in the world in a range of categories. Forbes ranks the companies using a combination of four metrics: sales, profit, assets, and stock market value. A total of 169 tech companies made the 2023 list. Forbes says that “the tech companies on our list nevertheless posted a record $4.2 trillion in combined annual revenue over the last 12 months, up from about $4 trillion the year before and $3.3 trillion two years before.”

Seventy-two of the world’s largest tech companies are headquartered in the United States. Other countries with a large number of large tech companies include China (25), Taiwan (15), and Japan (12).

The world’s largest tech companies in 2023 were:

1. Alphabet (United States)
2. Microsoft Corporation (United States)
3. Apple Inc. (United States)
4. Samsung Group (Korea)
5. Meta Platforms (United States)
6. Tencent Holdings Ltd. (China)
7. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (Taiwan)
8. Sony Corporation (Japan)
9. Oracle Corporation (United States)
10. Cisco Systems Inc. (United States)

The top trade and professional associations in the information technology industry include:

• The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (http://www.interactive.org) promotes and advances the worldwide interactive entertainment community. It offers individual membership and also has corporate members such as Electronic Arts, Nintendo, Epic Games, Activision Blizzard, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Ubisoft, and Warner Bros. Games.
• The American Society for Information Science and Technology (http://www.asist.org) is a major organization for information science and technology developers, practitioners, students, researchers, and in 50 countries.
• The Association for Computing Machinery (https://www.acm.org) has more than 100,000 members from industry, academia, and government institutions around the world. It has more than 35 special interest groups (including computer graphics, human interfaces, artificial intelligence, data mining, mobile communications, computer education, software engineering, and programming language), publishes more than 50 journals, and sponsors more than 170 conferences. At its Web site, the association offers information on education, internships, careers, student membership, and XRDS, its student magazine.
• The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (https://www.aaai.org) was founded in 1979 to advance the scientific understanding and use of artificial intelligence (AI). It publishes AI Magazine, offers a job bank at its Web site, and hosts conferences and other networking opportunities.
• CompTIA (http://www.comptia.org) is a membership organization for IT professionals and vendors. It provides continuing education classes and webinars, certification, and professional development conferences. . A wealth of information about careers and industry trends is available at its Web site.
• The Entertainment Software Association (http://www.theesa.com) represents the professional interests of nearly 30 companies that create computer and video games for video game consoles, personal computers, and the Internet.
• The IEEE Computer Society (http://www.computer.org) is one of the world's leading membership organizations dedicated to computer science and technology. It has more than 50,000 members (including college students). The society has more than 300 local and regional chapters, sponsors over 185 conferences and 3,113 technical and networking events each year, and publishes dozens of scholarly journals and magazines. It also provides educational and career information, a certification program, and continuing education opportunities.
• SIIA (http://www.siia.net) is the main trade association for specialized technology, content and information companies and associations
• The Technology Services Industry Association (https://www.tsia.com) describes itself as the “world’s leading research organization dedicated to helping technology companies achieve profitable growth and solve their top business challenges.”
• It has about 40,000 service practitioners as members.