An employment survey of the years 2004-2005 involving 37,000 businesses and organisations shows that the number of jobs in the province of Utrecht is up by 3,500. The increase is largely to be seen in the business services area, traditionally one of the strongest sectors in the province. Knowledge intensive businesses, in particular, are currently expanding and hiring. Also noteworthy is the fact that there are more than 900 new jobs at IT companies, particularly innovative ones such as software developers. Currently, there are over 43,000 IT jobs in the province. These rising employment figures confirm that the economy in the central region of the Netherlands is growing again at a relatively fast pace.