Fairfax leads N.Va. in IT sector growth

Fairfax County (Map, News) - Fairfax County added more than 2,200 professional services and information technology jobs between April and June — a figure that keeps the county on track to live up to its impressive employment projections during the next 25 years — according to figures released Friday by the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority.

“The continued strength of the IT sector in Fairfax County is once again reflected in our quarterly job numbers,” authority President and CEO Gerry Gordon said. “I think the impressive nature of the growth is the number itself. … Any job in the primary economy will spin off two to three more jobs in the secondary economy.”

Fairfax County — and the Dulles Corridor specifically — is expected to account for about 20 percent of the entire Washington region’s growth by 2030, according to projections from the George Mason University Center for Regional Analysis. Fairfax has consistently added thousands of jobs each quarter as it attracts new and expanding information technology companies. Thirty-nine companies opened or expanded their operations in Fairfax between April and June and are expected to add 2,252 jobs to the economy — the vast majority of them information technology jobs.

The county has a stronghold on the information technology sector, but other Northern Virginia counties are also contributing to the overall growth of the Washington region with technology-based companies.

For example, the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership is expected to release its annual employment figures this week. The city is home to 307 technology companies and 11,672 technology employees.

“It’s probably in everyone’s strategic plans to attract tech companies,” said Stephanie Landrum, acting executive director for the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership. “But it benefits us to go after certain types of tech companies.”

Alexandria’s technology-based companies are primarily centered around the graphic arts, Landrum said. Fairfax has historically gone after information technology companies focused on federal contracting.

Northern Virginia is expected to outpace both the District and suburban Maryland in overall job growth in the coming years. In 2005, Northern Virginia added more than 43,000 of the region’s 64,000 new jobs, while D.C. added about 7,500.

New companies in Fairfax County

Of the 39 companies that added new jobs to Fairfax County last quarter, 13 were companies brand-new to the county. The remaining companies expanded their offices in Fairfax.

» Bantu Inc.: 40 jobs

» Blue Collar Objects: 55 jobs

» Electronic Security Council: 1 job

» Hyper V Technologies: 9 jobs

» InfinityQS: 27 jobs

» Invequity: 4 jobs

» Nytor Technologies: 53 jobs

» Primary Integration: 80 jobs

» Revive Systems Inc.: 22 jobs

» Security One Bank: 15 jobs

» Synacor: 4 jobs

» TCDI: 10 jobs

» Technical Solution Providers: 85 jobs

kwilmeth@dcexaminer.com

Advertisement