My phone has been ringing off the hook today. Everyone wants to know what impact AOL’s announcement to move its headquarters to New York will have on Greater Washington.

Other than bragging rights to the official title of “headquarters,” Greater Washington is fortunate in that most of the 4,000 employees of AOL in Northern Virginia will remain. And the #1 reason why AOL says it will keep its strong presence in Greater Washington? The educated workforce.

GWI issued a press release just last week touting the fact that recently released U.S. Census data show Greater Washington leading the nation in educational attainment (see blog entry below).

This is a smart business decision for AOL, who has reinvented itself over the last decade to stay healthy and remain as one of the leading technology companies in the world. And Greater Washington should want AOL to stay healthy. If AOL continues to thrive, we will reap the benefits, as AOL’s presence here will grow along with it.

And don’t be fooled by those that think this announcement will dampen Greater Washington’s reputation as a leading technology region. Our technology workforce is larger than that of San Francisco-San Jose and three times larger than the national average. Greater Washington has more than 7,500 IT firms, or roughly 148 firms for every 100,000 residents. This concentration is twice that of the New York and Chicago metro areas and three times that of Los Angeles. What’s more, an increasing number of these firms focus on innovation and programming, employing nearly 100,000 computer programmers and designers. In fact, the region employs six times the national average of computer scientists, and four times the national average in computer software engineers specializing in systems design.

Greater Washington is doing just fine, thank you.

Filed under: Regional News