High-tech employment turned corner in 2005
Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal - 1:25 PM PDT Wednesday
The report by AeA, a high-tech trade association, reveals the first national increase in tech jobs since the economic downturn in 2001. High-tech employment was up 1 percent in 2005, or 61,100 out of 5.6 million workers, according to the report. Matthew Kazmierczak, vice president for research and industry statistics for AeA, said the tech industry is "slowly turning the corner." In California, the nation's high-tech industry leader, job losses have dramatically slowed and venture capital is up, he said.
High-tech employment in California edged downward by 10,600 jobs, or 1 percent, from 2003 to 2004. The state logged a tech industry total of 904,900 jobs in 2004, the most current year for which state data were available. That's a slower job loss than the 67,800 jobs lost in 2003, according to the report.
Though California lost more jobs than other states, it still leads the nation by most high-tech industry metrics, including wages, payroll and exports.
Workers earned an average wage of $90,600, or 106 percent more than California's average private-sector wage, the report states. California had a high-tech payroll of $81.9 billion, and tech companies exported $47.8 billion from the state.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2006/04/17/daily48.html