The United States lost 560,000 high-tech jobs in 2001 and 2002, according to a recent study by the nation’s largest high-tech trade association.
Tech employment dropped from 5.7 million jobs in January 2001 to 5.1 million jobs in December 2002, according to a report released March 19 by Washington, D.C.-based American Electronics Association. The numbers suggest a potentially crippling contraction in the nation’s high-tech industry, according to William T. Archey, president and CEO of the AEA.
The loss of tech jobs is seen as continued fallout from the burst of the industry’s bubble on Wall Street in 2000, and to the nation’s overall economic recession, said Archey in a press statement. Archey called on lawmakers to take legislative action to protect the high-tech industry from further collapse.
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“The data would strongly suggest that there is a need for economic stimulus including the president’s package, and specific proposals backed by the high-tech industry, such as the Homeland Investment Act, and others,” said Archey.
The AEA analyzed monthly employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to compile the ominous statistics.
High-tech manufacturing employment shrank by 415,000 jobs, a 20-percent drop, between January 2001 and December 2002. The nation’s communications services industry saw a 9-percent decline in its employment base with a loss of 135,000 jobs during the same period.
The report also revealed that food products and transportation equipment manufacturing now employ more workers than the high-tech manufacturing industry, which had been the largest manufacturing sector in the United States.
The report did note an upside in one segment of the high-tech industry: computer software developers and manufacturers continue to thrive.
“On the positive side, software services actually increased by 5,300 jobs,” said Archey. “This is consistent with the fact that many of the innovations in the high-tech industry are driven by software.”
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