Washington, DC, ranks number 6 in the nation among regions with a high concentration of IT employment.

That's the word from CompTIA, a nonprofit trade association that tracks employment in information technology.

CompTIA says technology accounts for 9.7 percent of the jobs in greater Washington.The association notes that capital-area salaries are good for tech workers too. IT salaries in the Washington, DC, area average $120,000, the association says.That's 67 percent higher than the region's overall average salary of $72,000 per year – a substantial mark-up for tech skills.

CompTIA says high-tech activity now accounts for 12.5 percent of the economy in and around Washington, DC.And it's not just IT contractors working for the federal government.

"I think the cyber-center of parts of the U.S.have kind of aggregated in the Dulles Corridor in particular, but it's really become kind of a hotbed for the tech start-up sector and also for software development and software engineering," says CompTIA chief executive Todd Thibodeaux.

Although IT consulting accounts for a great deal of employment and recent economic growth, Thibodeaux says recent growth isn't confined to government contracts.Instead, he says, it's "things that relate to automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence."

Tech-sector employment grew 3 percent nationally in 2016 and now accounts for nearly seven million workers.Analysts say the technology sector is responsible for about 8 percent of the American economy – more than $1.3 trillion annually.

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