TECHburgher :: Putting some sizzle in the Pittsburgh technology sector.

The Pittsburgh Technology Council released its State of the Industry Report for 2009 this fall, which found that several southwestern Pennsylvania technology industry clusters have made considerable strides in growth, particularly with respect to total annual payroll.

The report, which covers the 13-county southwestern Pennsylvania region, examines the role that the technology industry clusters and other key factors play in southwestern Pennsylvania’s economy. It documents the number of companies, total employment, total annual payroll and average wages for six main technology industry clusters, including information technology, advanced materials, life sciences, advanced manufacturing, environmental technology and energy technology, which represents a new industry category for this year’s report.

According to the report, the 13-county southwestern Pennsylvania region has 8,438 technology companies that employ more than 248,000 with a total annual payroll in excess of $14.5 billion. These companies represent 11.2 percent of all companies in the region, yet they employ 19.4 percent of the region’s workforce. In addition, regional technology industries’ total annual payroll represents 27.5 percent of the total payroll for the region, indicating that technology jobs do indeed pay higher than the average wage.

The report also notes that health services represents a significant portion of the life sciences industry cluster, with more than 2,900 establishments and employing more than 105,000. The health services subcluster has a total annual payroll of $5.5 billion. Check out the complete report right here.