NEW YORK CITY-Growth in the high-tech industry is helping to fuel an office market recovery--both nationally and locally--a report from Jones Lang LaSalle finds. According to JLL’s High-Technology Industry Report, of the 500,000 office jobs created in the US since early 2010, 25% have been in the high-tech sector.

As a result of this growth, established high-tech markets like New York are seeing vacancy rates for prime locations plummet. In Manhattan, Midtown South, where the companies tend to cluster, has the lowest vacancy rate--just 6.7%, the report found.

“Midtown South is ultimately an attractive area because technology companies have a tendency to be start-up companies, and to a large extent it has historically been an area that is populated with older buildings, rather than new class A glass and steel inventory,” Sean Black, a VP at JLL, tells GlobeSt.com. Black focuses much of his work on the tech sector and contributed to the report.

While law firms and other companies that require rich, more stable infrastructure head for new class A buildings, Black says that many tech firms are start-ups looking to take advantage of the cheaper rents that the city’s older stock of buildings afford.

“Midtown South has historically been an area that is populated with older buildings, rather than new class A glass and steel inventory,” he says. “As such, those buildings would traditionally tend to trade at a discount. As a start-up, one of the important things is to conserve cash flow.”

They also like, he says, the younger, hipper street vibe in areas like Midtown South--a factor that helps them compete “for access to the most important capital, which is talent and IQ.”

Though the report indicates that growth in the high-tech sector is in its early stages, with cities like Pittsburgh, Portland and Baltimore having plenty of hiring ahead, it found that high-tech hiring is consistently outpacing other office-using sectors. This is surprising, in light of the fact that high-tech services make up just 1.7% of total employment in the US.

When compared to the tech boom of the 90s, Black sees more marked differences than similarities. “We’re still on the runway,” he says. “There’s a clear path for revenue generation and profitability--that’s the big difference.”