Until recently, the high-tech industry cluster was relatively amorphous. Analysts chose industries that best suited the immediate objective – a “know it when you see it” approach, but that made it difficult to compare one analysis to any other. So in 2013 the Workforce Information Council, a federal-state organization set up under federal law, created a new, statistically robust high-tech taxonomy or classification procedure.
The taxonomy is based on the concentration of science, technology, engineering and mathematics occupations within an industry. To qualify as high-tech, an industry must have 2.5 times the national average of so-called STEM occupations. The current national average is roughly 5 percent, meaning to qualify as high-tech, an industry must have at least 15 percent of all employment classified as STEM occupations.
The most recent industry assessment under the taxonomy, released in 2014, includes 31 industries ranging from computer systems design and related services, where STEM concentration was about 67 percent nationally, to resin, synthetic rubber and artificial synthetic fibers and filaments manufacturing, where the STEM concentration was roughly 16 percent nationwide.

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