The Tri-Cities area is currently home to 1,600 PhDs and 7,000 engineers and scientists and has the second highest percentage of technology jobs per 1,000 in the state.    The average annual wage for a Professional, Scientific and Technology Services (P-T-S) worker in Benton County is $61,415.  

World class technology companies need world class workers, and, with some exceptions, they are generally available in the Tri-Cities. In 2000, 94 percent of Benton County's population 25 years of age or older had a high school diploma or better.   Almost 40 percent had at least four years of college and, of those, almost 10 percent held advanced degrees.    Benton County has roughly twice as many PhDs as the state average at 1.5 percent of all adults 25 or older.   

The Tri-Cities is home to a far higher percentage of P-T-S workers than anywhere else in the state.   In 2004, P-T-S workers accounted for 12.45 percent of all non-farm employment in the MSA.   The percentage of P-T-S workers in King County (home of Microsoft) was 6.66 percent and the statewide average was 4.81 percent.

Patent activity by local companies and their employees is also a good measure of how active an area is in the innovative process.   These ideas are the basis of future products and processes.   In 2007, Tri-City companies received 32 new patents and submitted 46 patent applications.