If you were to wager on which city or region in the United States has the most technology jobs, a good bet would be Silicon Valley. The problem is you'd be wrong.

In a report released today titled "Cybercities 2008: An Overview of the High-Technology Industry in the Nation's Top 60 Cities," the Big Apple tops the list with the most high-tech jobs in the country, with a cool 316,500 working in the IT field. The report is based on 2006 employment numbers -- the most-current data available. The report was put out by AeA and breaks down the IT field by wages, establishments, payroll, employment concentration and wage differential at the metropolitan level.

New York is the second-fastest growing metro area and added 6,400 tech jobs in 2006; Seattle is the fastest-growing region and added 7,800 jobs.

"When people think of technology clusters in the United States, the New York metro area doesn't often come to mind, but it should," said Justin Wright, executive director of AeA's New York Council, in a press release. "We have the nation's largest high-tech work force with an extremely strong technology services industry. New York is attractive because of our many world-class universities, our highly educated work force and our proximity to strong capital markets."

Wright gets a bit political in the press release, jabbing at Washington, D.C., policy makers over visas for foreign nationals.

From the release: "Unfortunately, we are not able to take full advantage of many of the best and brightest students being educated at our universities. These individuals are often foreign nationals who are forced to leave the country upon graduation because of misguided visa policies coming out of Washington. This is tragic because foreign nationals are renowned for helping spawn technology start-up companies that create innovation and high-paying jobs in the United States. Forcing them out only heightens competition from abroad," Wright said.

Following New York, the cyber-cities with the most high-tech jobs in 2006 were Washington, D.C., San Jose/Silicon Valley, Boston and Dallas-Fort Worth.

The report also takes on education in the United States and challenges officials to take up the tech cause.

"These are the types of jobs every city wants," said Christopher Hansen, president and CEO of AeA, in a press release. "But how to attract and retain them is the key question all mayors, city council officials and local business leaders grapple with. All of these cybercities compete not only with each other for such critical factors of innovation as talent and capital -- they compete with technology centers across the globe. City leaders need to ensure the quality of local K-12 education, particularly in math and science, to prepare children for these high-paying careers. They need to support vibrant research universities from which so many start-up companies are formed. They need to invest in modern infrastructure, including reliable broadband networks that are as critical to economic development today as the electrical grid was a hundred years ago. And lastly, cities must create a business-friendly environment that attracts venture capital and cutting edge companies."

Who knows, maybe in a decade or so, the next tech hot bed will be in the hills of North Carolina.