Monday, January 02, 2006

On the high tech enterprises coming to Russell County

Today's Washington Post includes "Mining Coal Country for Tech Workers," which says that Russell County is "where government contractors CGI-AMS Inc. and Northrop Grumman Corp. will in the next few months start building multimillion-dollar technology centers and hire hundreds of software engineers at salaries far above the region's average, bringing a taste of Washington's lucrative tech sector to a coal country enclave."

The gist of the article is that labor costs are forcing tech jobs out of the D.C. area into rural areas.

The article notes: "The average salary for the 300 people CGI-AMS expects to hire in Lebanon, for instance, will be $50,000 -- far above the town's $27,606 average annual wage but about half the salary an advanced software developer in Northern Virginia might earn."

The article also says: "Speculation about when a Starbucks will appear is rampant on the streets of Lebanon."

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