U.S. high-tech industry lost 4% of jobs in 2009

[alp227]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

The U.S. high-tech industry lost 245,600 jobs in 2009, according to a report being issued today by the TechAmerica Foundation.

The foundation, a nonprofit affiliate of the same-named trade association, said the 5.9 million Americans who worked in the industry last year earned an average annual wage of $84,400 - compared with the average private sector wage of $45,400.

The study, titled Cyberstates 2010, is based on federal employment data. It says tech employment slipped 4 percent in 2009 compared with the 5 percent decline that occurred in overall private-sector payrolls last year.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/27/BU9K1D5LCU.DTL&type=tech

[OhioChick]

1. Time to cut off the H1 and L1 programs....put our own citizens to work first.

That would save some jobs here....

For the corporations that outsource/offshore.....tax the hell out of them. Bring down the deficit in no time.

Such as:

Mattel may cut jobs at Fisher-Price in outsourcing move

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x532283

[ChromeFoundry]

2. +1000 n/t

[PDJane]

3. A friend's company

Has outsourced R & D to India. He had to interview and was supposed to train a brand new staff to take over. He has done over 1,000 interviews, and has been able to hire one person.

He has now moved on, and the company is struggling to find replacements.....but they are determined to find them in India.

The company has been stripped of people, including sales people; this was supposed to make them more competitive. It increased the bottom line and their remuneration, but did nothing for the long-term viability of the company. This latest move isn't going to help either.

[conspirator]

4. I wish all cheap indian imported software was full of bugs and backdoors nt

[peacebird]

6. our Indian "partners" have sent lots of subpar code, which our engineers have to fix

and then send the fixes BACK to India so they can ship it back to us, as if it was theirs. Top management LOVES the "partners" in India, and they are in process of cutting our legs out from under us by sending all R&D there while cutting jobs here. After all - coders and testers in India cost less...
To think that *I* believed that a good education and a white collar job was protection. LOL! Now I tell folks to get a job in the trades - honest work that cannot be outsourced.

[JoeyT]

7. I have 2 trades and education/white collar job skills

and neither is a safe bet right now.
With the economy in the tank the few companies that are hiring are trying to hire for unlivable wages and unworkable conditions.

[Skittles]

8. it is

[scentopine]

5. India shovelling crappy software products into US

but that will change as Fortune 500 continues to out spend public school systems training uneducated people in unregulated labor markets.

India won't remain the Walmart of software forever. Geithner promised outsourcing will continue.

Note to Obama: we can't educate ourselves to $7 / Hr with no benefits.

Free trade my ass.