Philly ranks 9th in high tech jobs

According to a report by TechAmerica, an IT trade association, Philadelphia ranks as a top 10 technology hub, employing 134,235 high-tech workers in 2009, a drop of 2,800 jobs from 2008.
However, the region’s tech industry wasn’t as affected as Detroit and San Francisco, where job losses topped 16,000. The country as a whole lost 1 percent of all technology jobs.
Given the amount of colleges and universities here, it’s easy to chalk this one up to a classic case of Philly brain drain mixed with the down economy. However, just last week Campus Philly announced that Philly has retained 49 percent of college grads in this year, up from 29 percent in 2004. Given that Philly’s losses weren’t as heavy as other cities, does this mean that the city will bounce back quicker than its peers?
Some other facts from the Cybercities press release. Keep in mind that “high tech jobs” does not refer to all technology employment in the region:

• 134,200 high-tech workers in 2009 (9th ranked)
• 2,800 jobs lost between 2008 and 2009 (43rd ranked)
• High-tech firms employed 60 of every 1,000 private sector workers in 2009 (33rd ranked)
• High-tech workers earned an average wage of $93,400 (10th ranked), or 83 percent more than Philadelphia’s average private sector wage
• A high-tech payroll of $12.5 billion in 2009 (9th ranked)
• 7,400 high-tech establishments in 2009 (8th ranked)