Nation's Top Ten Tech-Savvy Cities Ranked in New Brainbench Report

A new report from Brainbench detailing the concentrations of certified information technology (IT) professionals in ten critical IT skills areas, shows the San Francisco metro area has overtaken Seattle/Tacoma for the highest IT IQ. New additions to this year's tech-savvy metro areas include New York/New Jersey/Connecticut, Washington/Baltimore and Denver/Boulder.
Called the Brainbench Global IT IQ Report, it ranks the global concentrations of IT skills in virtually every major country. In addition to showing country data, the report details the IT skills base within major metropolitan areas within the U.S. for the year ending December 31, 2001. The top ten U.S. metropolitan areas include:

1. San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose
2. New York/Northern New Jersey/Long Island/Connecticut
3. Washington/Baltimore
4. Chicago/Gary/Lake County, IL
5. Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX
6. Los Angeles/Anaheim/Riverside
7. Atlanta, GA
8. Detroit/Ann Arbor, MI
9. Seattle/Tacoma, WA
10. Denver/Boulder, CO

Metropolitan areas dropping off this year's list include Raleigh/Durham; Minneapolis/St. Paul; Milwaukee/Racine, WI; Greensboro/Winston- Salem/Highpoint, NC; St. Louis, MO; Austin, TX; Dayton/Springfield, OH and Las Vegas, NV.

According to Brainbench President and Chief Executive Officer Mike Russiello, "We have seen tremendous growth in demand for certifications over the last year, and the new Global IT IQ Report shows how strongly IT professionals in leading metropolitan areas are embracing the credibility that comes with certification. When you couple this data with the fact that in our recent salary survey certified IT professionals out-earned their non-certified counterparts, it becomes clear that people are receiving certifications because they have true professional and economic benefits. Employers are also finding that there are uses for certification that go beyond a strict skills assessment. Many firms are now using certifications in order to better redeploy staff resources, as well as to bring more focus to their training efforts."

The Brainbench Global IT IQ Report examines the number of certified technology professionals in a number of key IT skills. For the U.S. portion of the report, Brainbench mined its database of almost 5 million tests and certifications in ten skills areas; Active Server Pages, C, C++, Computer Technical Support, HTML 3.2, HTML 4.0, Java 1, Java 2, Javascript and Network Technical Support. The total number of all certified professionals was calculated for more than 200 metropolitan statistical areas within the U.S. and ranked according to the total number of certifications received. Detailed data on the certifications earned in each metropolitan area are available upon request.

A free copy of the complete Brainbench 2002 Global IT IQ Report is available for download from Brainbench at: http://www.brainbench.com/links/toglobalitiq.html

About Brainbench

Brainbench, now with more than 3.5 million registered users, pioneered online skills testing. Brainbench provides over 360 professional online certification exams and employment assessments in information technology, finance, sales, administration, healthcare and other categories. Since 1999, Brainbench has administered over 4.7 million tests and maintains the largest ISO 9001 certified library of exams in the world today. Corporate customers include Autodesk, IBM, EDS, Qwest, Element K, PeopleSoft, Cable & Wireless, Manpower Professional, and Booz Allen & Hamilton. Major investors include Manpower, Thomson Learning, Terra Lycos and Primus Venture Partners. For additional information about Brainbench, point your browser to http://www.brainbench.com.

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