Irvine Declared High-Tech Hub of the Southland

Irvine is by a wide margin the leading high-tech employment center in Southern California, and is also expected to post the greatest job gains in the region over the next year, according to a recent economic report.

Irvine has 232 high-tech companies that employ a combined 23,720 workers, according to the report by the Economic Development Corp. of Los Angeles County. The report was based on a survey that targeted only emerging high-tech companies, however, meaning that it excluded companies with more than 1,000 workers.

Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Economic Development Corp., said Irvine has become a technology hotbed largely because of the success of the Irvine Spectrum business park and UC Irvine.

The next city on the list is Chatsworth, with 105 companies that employ 9,017 workers.

A number of other Orange County cities also appear in the rankings, including Anaheim at No. 5 with 8,118 jobs, Costa Mesa at No. 6 with 5,636 jobs and Tustin at No. 8 with 4,819 jobs.

The survey was part of an effort to build awareness of the size of the high-tech industry in Southern California. The report even coins the term “Tech Coast” for the region, which includes Ventura, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange and San Diego counties.

Irvine’s main high-tech activity is computer hardware, which accounts for about 5,000 jobs. The city is home to some of the region’s largest high-tech companies, including disk drive manufacturer Western Digital Corp. and computer maker AST Research Inc.

Irvine high-tech employers also projected that they would add 1,636 new jobs over the next year, more than twice as many new tech positions as any other Southern California city.

The survey focused on companies that have their headquarters and significant employment bases in Southern California cities. Technology covered a range of industries, including computer hardware and software, medical devices, telecommunications and defense.