Vegas ranks 35th in tech study

Kevin Ferguson

Friday, April 20, 2001 | 11:19 a.m.

The Las Vegas area is only creeping along in making the transition to succeed in the new Information Age, a think tank reported Thursday in ranking the desert metropolis 35th among the nation's 50 largest cities.

The report was issued by the Progressive Policy Institute and Case Western Reserve University's Center of Regional Economic Issues.

The study's conclusions were based on economic indicators, such as technological innovation capacity, transformation to a digital economy and elements of globalization.

"Beyond the rise and fall of the stock market or the success of any dot-com, this New Economy is here to stay, and our metropolitan areas need to understand and adjust to these new challenges," said Robert Atkinson, co-author of the report and director of PPI's Technology and New Economy Project.

San Francisco, Austin, Texas, and Seattle topped the list. The bottom three were Grand Rapids, Mich., San Antonio, Tex., and Jacksonville, Fla.

The 50 metropolises in the study account for about 60 percent of the nation's workforce. Some of the indicators used in the study include the number of initial public offerings (IPO), workforce education levels, number of broadband telecommunication providers and the number of science and engineering graduates from area colleges and universities.

The authors said cities need to shift their focus from providing business tax breaks and other subsidies to investing in workforce skills, a vibrant infrastructure for technological innovation and suburban quality of life.

Some local industry observers agree that Las Vegas has many challenges -- like offering lower salaries than counterparts in other cities -- in trying to recruit or develop technology talent here.

"When people are interested in moving out here for a job, they are often shocked when they hear what the salaries are," said Roberta Weller, of the local division of the Association of Information Technology Professionals. "And even when we point out that the cost-of-living is lower, it's sometimes not enough because it's a shot to their ego."

However, some say the gaming industry -- which relies heavily on technical people to manufacture and repair slot machines, write software and run computer systems -- is often overlooked in these studies.

"Certainly they overlook us. But what we do is very specialized. And we are trying to move to a more universal technology," said Ed Rogich, vice president of marketing for slot maker International Game Technology.

IGT conducts nationwide searches for technical talent and Rogich said many slot-making competitors try to fill openings by attempting to lure IGT talent.