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According to a new analysis that took a look at every state in the country, the workforce in Massachusetts is the most technology-heavy in the United States. This information comes from a report released earlier this week by CompTIA, a technology industry trade association headquartered in Illinois.

In the Massachusetts labor force, according to the report, nearly one out of every 10 workers is employed in a technological field, such as software, telecom, tech manufacturing, among others. With just under 10 percent, 9.8 percent to be exact, in the technology industry, Massachusetts was able to edge Virginia out for the top spot in the country.

According to the United States Labor Department, this amount came out to nearly 300,000 employees in Massachusetts working with technology in one capacity or another. The average wage of a tech worker in Massachusetts was $121,000, the second-highest in the country and nearly double that of an average worker in any other industry.

Not only is the workforce becoming more technologically-savvy, but the tech industry in the Bay State is also continuing to grow steadily each year. In 2014 alone, nearly 9,000 jobs were added to the technology field, making Massachusetts the fourth-largest in terms of job growth. There was also a growth in the number of positions advertised, with 16 percent more openings in late 2014 than there were a year before.

If you work with technology and need custom database software for your job, be sure to work with developer KYO Logic. Be sure to make the most out of your Massachusetts technology job, whether you are part of a larger company or launching your own startup.

Civic technology, aimed at developing solutions to benefit a community's population, is an area that is attracting widespread interest in recent times. In New York City, a new private initiative is seeking to encourage its development through collaboration between academics, engineers and data scientists, to name a few. The founders of the Personal Democracy Forum, an annual event on the influence of the Internet on politics and advocacy, have recently opened Civic Hall in Manhattan's Flatiron District.

Civic Hall has 18,500 square feet of work, conference and event space. Here, private companies are coming together to develop innovative solutions like air conditioners with low carbon emissions. Public organizations, including the New York Public Library, are collaborating with programming events at the Hall.

Throughout the city, tech companies are growing at an unprecedented pace, as Mayor Bill de Blasio has followed in the footsteps of his predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, in fostering IT development with tax breaks, imitating San Francisco's model. Major companies like BuzzFeed and Etsy have million-dollar tax credits, and much smaller companies are feeling the benefits as well.

According to Jones Lang LaSalle, employment in the tech sector is up 40 percent since 2008 in New York City, with the yearly rate at 8.4 percent, compared to 5.2 percent in Silicon Valley. Venture capital investment is up 138 percent in the past year. Digital media, online retail and software developing companies are leading the charge.

In the case of app and other software developers, New York companies are often thriving by gearing their products specifically to city dwellers. By understanding and targeting a specific audience, the city's tech sector is cementing its place as a national leader.

The great thing about Massachusetts is that it is currently in the middle of major growth in its technology industry. In fact, a recent report from the research firm CB Insights found that the Bay State is currently third in the country for tech startups. Now is the perfect opportunity to be a part of the creative innovations being done in this field.

But what do some of the best startups in the state look like? Finding the best of the best to invest in or be a part of in other ways can be tricky, especially with so many new companies popping up all over the place.

Here are a few tech startups to keep an eye on:

• "Now is the perfect opportunity to be a part of the creative innovations being done in this field."

  ClearSky Data: While the digital world continues to grow, we all need places in which to store our data. ClearSky will aim to help businesses with their data storage needs through various products and services it develops.

• Drafted: While little is known about this startup currently, according to state filing papers it will revolve around technology-enabled human resources services. This is great news for a part of the corporate world that can often lag behind others when it comes to being updated and technologically efficient.
• nToggle: This is a startup that is all about digital advertising. The main goal of this new company, which was incorporated in September of last year, is to help both buyers and sellers trade with both greater efficiency and transparency.

If you are looking to have your Massachusetts tech startup make the most of your custom database software, be sure to work with developer Kyo Logic.

Venture capital database CB Insights has published its 2014 Global Tech Exits Report, which documents the number of startups that exited, that is, went public or were acquired, last year. As it did in 2013, New York came in second among U.S. states with 158 exits, behind only perennial leader California, which recorded 523. The Empire State warded off third-place Massachusetts, with 113.

New York's biggest exit was loan financing platform OnDeck, which went public on December 17 and raised $200 million, being valued at approximately $1.3 billion. Other significant deals were the acquisition of mobile and tablet retargeting company TapCommerce by Twitter and the IPO of digital media company Everyday Health, each worth about $100 million.

Prospects are good for the market to stay active in 2015, starting with the IPO of popular crafts e-commerce site Etsy, which is expected to raise about $300 million sometime during the first quarter. Funding has been increasing for established companies and the number of startups that are being valued at or above $1 billion is also on the rise.

"There are a lot more high-value startups now, and with that we could see an increasing number of venture-capital-backed exits, and bigger exits than we've seen before," said CB Insights analyst Michael Dempsey. "Two years ago, [the $1.1 billion sale of ] Tumblr was a big moment for New York. I think you're going to be seeing that a lot more frequently moving forward."

While California will continue to dominate the tech landscape in the near future, states like Massachusetts and New York have developed environments in which software developing companies can thrive and find major financial success.

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development has published its latest report on the state's employment data. In December, Massachusetts added nearly 11,000 jobs, making a total of 60,900 new jobs in 2014, the fifth straight year of job growth, and about 200,000 since the end of the Great Recession. Over the course of last year, the unemployment rate fell from 7.1 percent to 5.5 percent, the lowest since August 2008.

As The Boston Globe notes, the tech industry, along with biotechnology and life sciences, helped Massachusetts emerge from the recession before many other states. According to the Office of Labor, the professional, scientific and business services industry added almost 13,000 jobs in 2014, behind only education and health services.

"Today's jobs report shows progress as the Commonwealth continues to reduce unemployment, but there is still much work to be done," said Governor Charlie Baker, who will be looking to build on these strong numbers after taking office this month. "Our Administration is committed to closing our state's deficit and focusing on meaningful steps to improve employment opportunities for everyone everywhere, especially veterans returning home, students entering the workforce, and those living in regions of our state still waiting for economic recovery."

Recent developments show that state officials are relying on the IT sector to provide a further boost to the regional economy. So far in 2015, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh has announced the creation of a startup portal for the city and a bill has been introduced in the General Court to promote collaboration between companies and municipalities. Massachusetts software developing companies should see their prospects improve in the coming months.

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based cloud services provider Akamai Technologies has released its latest State of the Internet report for the third quarter of 2014. The report provides valuable data on global and national broadband speeds, and this most recent edition brings very good news for the state of Connecticut.

According to Akamai's study, Connecticut's peak speeds jumped 25 percent in Q3, more than those of any other state, to 71 megabits per second. That puts it in second place in the United States, behind only Delaware at 75.7. The U.S. average is just 48.8 Mbps, dragged down by many rural states. Connecticut's 71 Mbps make it slower than just three countries: Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea.

Rounding out the top five states are Massachusetts (63.7 Mbps), Washington (62.6) and Virginia (61.8), with the District of Columbia at 63.1. Forty-seven states increased their speed in Q3, the exceptions being Kentucky, tied for slowest in the nation, and New Hampshire and Oregon, which are in the middle of the pack. Akamai says that average peak speeds reflect a territory's capacity better than simply average speeds.

"This is yet another measure in which Connecticut doesn't just compete with our fellow states when it comes to internet speed — it blows away the competition," said Connecticut Senate majority leader Bob Duff to The Daily Voice. "This is a home run for Connecticut, and the kind of news that both individuals and small businesses can really get excited about."

A growing number of state and local governments are realizing that fast internet speeds are a necessity for their businesses to thrive. Connecticut FileMaker developer Kyo Logic can help local companies grow through the development of customized databases and business apps.

The Massachusetts Legislative Tech Hub Caucus has finalized plans to introduce a so-called "Innovative Communities" bill to the Massachusetts General Court. The Caucus is co-chaired by State Senator Karen Spilka and Representative Ann-Margaret Ferrante. The bill, which Spilka introduced in the Senate on Friday, aims to connect the state's cities and towns with emerging technologies developed by Massachusetts companies.

Spilka met with members of the tech community following her re-election last November. At the meeting, a panel of judges that included iRobot CEO Colin Angle picked the idea for the bill in a contest modeled after startup pitch competitions. Industry insiders complained that startups often struggle to secure contracts with local councils.

"The process is lengthy and hard for them to understand," agreed Spilka. "We're trying to be innovative and creative. We're sending a message to the startup and tech community that Massachusetts is a welcoming place to do business."

This has turned out to be something of a momentous week for the Massachusetts IT community. During Tuesday's state of the city address, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh announced the creation of StartHub, a startup portal to help entrepreneurs connect with the city and with each other. The city will soon begin the search for its "startup czar," who will be in charge of city-community relations, according to Mayor Walsh's chief of staff.

With the Innovative Communities bill, the Tech Hub Caucus hopes to boost both technological adoption among municipalities and growth opportunities for the state's software developing companies. By bringing private initiatives and public funding together, the Massachusetts tech scene can remain a leader on the national stage.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh delivered his first State of the City address on Tuesday, focusing largely on education and housing. Among his other announcements was one of great interest to the Massachusetts tech sector: the launch of StartHub, a regional platform to encourage entrepreneurship. Mayor Walsh said the project would include the naming of a full-time "startup czar" to guide its policies.

There are still very few details on this initiative, but members of the tech community welcomed the news. Walsh's chief of staff, Dan Koh, told BetaBoston that StartHub is the result of a series of roundtables the mayor has held with tech CEOs, venture capitalists and accelerators. Many complained that companies were not getting enough assistance from city officials.

"I think this is a big move by the city and has the potential to benefit the startup community if done right," said HourlyNerd CEO Patrick Petitti, whose website allows companies to hire MBA candidates and graduates part-time. "Without knowing the job description, I would imagine and hope that he or she will act as a conduit between the community and the city, engaging with entrepreneurs to understand needs and challenges."

As this blog reported at the time, New York City already launched a portal, Digital.NYC, in October, to help entrepreneurs connect with investors and with each other and assist IT professionals in finding work. Los Angeles also has a similar project in place to liaise with its tech community.

While this initiative has barely gotten off the ground, entrepreneurs and city leaders hope that in areas like software development Boston will be able to maintain the standard of its world-class universities.

Early-stage investment fund Connecticut Innovations (CI) has announced that it supported 100 tech startups throughout the state during the 2014 calendar year, providing tens of millions of dollars to companies in various areas. CI was created in 1989 by the Connecticut General Assembly to boost the development of the state's private IT sector. The agency provides capital and loans to businesses that show promise.

In 2014, CI directly invested $20.2 million in 44 bioscience, clean energy, financial tech and IT startups, helping them attract an additional $61.8 million in angel investments and venture capital from other sources. Thirty-two of them had previously received funding from CI and were selected for their potential for future growth. Twenty-two others received $15 million in loans from CI and $37.4 million more from banks.

The agency also provided $32.4 million in tax-exempt funding to nine companies through its Specialty Finance Group, nearly $4 million to bioscience projects, $2.4 million to funding partners and $216,000 to 21 startups through the Entrepreneur Innovation Awards.

"Increased CI investment levels and entrepreneurial community building efforts of the past several years have created incredible momentum, spurring the growth and development of young companies in Connecticut," said CEO Claire Leonardi. "In particular, we look forward to more commercialization and company spinouts from our universities, which has been a focus here at CI."

Initiatives like CI that bring together private and public funding to promote innovation are the best way to ensure that Connecticut is able to hold its own in America's tech scene in the years to come. Biosciences, energy and software developing companies can all benefit from the opportunities that these funds provide.

The Connecticut State Department of Education is taking a hands-on role in the development of the state's technology workforce by promoting IT training in schools. Most recently, the Department announced the second round of a funding program to furnish schools with computers and expand their bandwidth. As part of this second round, $10 million will be distributed throughout the state.

The funding is related to the implementation of the Common Core State Standards Initiative in Connecticut, which features periodical computer-adapted tests to keep close track of students' progress in English and math over the course of their school years. Connecticut is a member of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, whose exams replace the Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) for grades 3–8 and the Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT) for grade 10 in the 2014–15 school year.

The program kicked off in July 2013 with $24 million, which was awarded to 128 schools. Interested districts can apply until February 13, and funding will be distributed to qualified applicants according to town wealth.

The Connecticut Technology Council (CTC) has stressed the importance of education in order to ensure that the state can compete on a national and even a global scale. According to a CTC survey, demand for IT workers will exceed supply in 2015, and there is concern that this could drive companies to move to states with more available qualified employees.

Connecticut will need more initiatives like this one to continue developing its tech workforce and become a hub for software developing companies in its own right. Local managed IT services providers can help companies keep pace with the latest technological innovations to drive their business goals forward.