WASHINGTON — Information technology nonprofit trade association CompTIA says 9.7 percent of the jobs in the Washington region are in technology, ranking D.C. No. 6 in the nation for IT workforce concentration.

Information technology employs about 298,000 people throughout the metro area, and the pay is good.

CompTIA says the average IT salary in Washington is now $120,000, compared to the overall average salary in the region of about $72,000.

The technology industry now accounts for 12.5 percent of the Washington region’s economy.

CompTIA says the region’s information technology growth goes well beyond all the government IT contractors.

“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 hot bed for the tech start-up sector and also for software development and software engineering,” CompTIA’s Todd Thibodeax tells WTOP.

And looking ahead, where are growth trends?

“Things that relate to automation, robotics and artificial intelligence,” he said.

Nationwide, the U.S. tech sector’s employment grew by nearly 3 percent in 2016, approaching seven million workers. The tech sector accounts for an estimated 8 percent of total activity in the U.S. economy, or more than $1.3 trillion a year.