- SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- About 12 percent of the
nation's high-tech jobs have evaporated during the past two years, but
the tech-job drain appears to be in its final stages, according to an industry
report to be released Wednesday.
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- After wiping out 540,000 jobs in 2002, high-tech employers
are on pace to lay off another 234,000 workers this year, based on figures
compiled by the AeA, a trade group formerly known as the American Electronics
Association.
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- Based on the AeA's estimates, the high-tech industry
will end this year with about 5.73 million workers, down from 6.5 million
employees at the end of 2001.
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- The 2002 contraction included 146,000 job losses in the
software sector, the first time employment in that high-tech niche has
fallen in the seven years that AeA has been compiling its state-of-the-industry
report.
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- California, long a high-tech magnet, accounted for 123,000
job losses in 2002, or 22 percent of the national total, the AeA said.
The study didn't provide a state-by-state breakdown on the 2003 job cuts.
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- As hard hit as it was, California ended 2002 with 994,700
high-tech jobs -- more than twice as many as Texas, the nation's second
largest high-tech hub with 478,900 employees.
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- Wyoming was the nation's most sparsely populated high-tech
state, with 4,357 employees in the industry. Wyoming added 453 high-tech
workers in 2002, joining Montana as the only states where the industry's
payroll increased. Montana gained 68 high-tech workers in 2002.
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- Despite its woes, the high-tech industry remains one
of the nation's biggest private-sector employers and continues to pay some
of the best wages, with its workers earning an average of $66,300 in 2001,
the most recent year for which the AeA had compensation data.
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- The high-tech industry's payroll totaled $433 billion
in 2001, accounting for about 11 percent of the nation's wages, the AeA
said.
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- The AeA depicted this year's work force erosion as an
encouraging sign, noting that the projected job losses represent a significant
improvement from the 2002 purge.
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- With the improving economy helping boost corporate spending
on computer hardware and software, the high-tech industry should begin
adding jobs during the spring, predicted William Archey, the AeA's president
and chief executive officer.
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- "There isn't going to be a massive infusion of new
jobs right away because companies have gotten used to operating leaner
and meaner," Archey said during an interview.
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- Although they remain cautious, high-tech companies attending
a recent AeA conference in San Diego were in a better mood than at any
time since the industry's painful comedown began in late 2000, Archey said.
"Companies have gone from being clinically depressed to rather upbeat."
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- The recent signs of an upturn come as a relief for an
industry that has suffered greatly as company sales and stock values have
cratered.
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- Although crash began in 2000, the AeA doesn't have comparable
employment figures for that year because of changes in the way the government
classifies job categories.
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- With the revisions, the AeA believes it has developed
a more precise measurement of high-tech employment that includes several
previously overlooked areas, including fiber optic manufacturers and Internet
portals such as Yahoo.
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