Tech loses fewer jobs than overall private sector

Like most other U.S. sectors, the high technology industry lost more than 245,600 jobs in 2009 but may be among the first to help pull the nation out of the economic downturn, according to Tech America's annual Cyberstates study released Wednesday.

The 4 percent decline in tech jobs is still less than the 5 percent reduction from the private sector as a whole. The tech industry still employs 5.86 million workers, Tech America said during a Tuesday briefing on the 13th edition of the report. Tech America President and CEO Phil Bond said the tech sector was one of the last sectors to be hit by the recession and looks like it will be one of the first ones helping to pull the nation out of the deep recession.

Tech manufacturing had the steepest decline among the four tech sectors, losing 112,600 jobs or 8.1 percent of its workforce last year. Software services had the smallest number of job losses with only a 1.2 percent decline, or 20,700 jobs.

"The one bright spot was software services," said TechAmerica Foundation Research Director Josh James. The foundation conducted the study, which is based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data, for TechAmerica. He noted that software services actually started adding jobs, 10,100, in the fourth quarter of 2009.

The tech industry also paid much higher wages on average than the rest of the private sector. The average tech wage of $84,400 was about 86 percent higher than the average private sector wage of $45,400, based on 2008 BLS wage data.

Noting the important role the tech industry is playing in helping to revive the nation's economy, Bond said policy makers need to do more to help support the industry. "The political apparatus talks the talk without completely walking the walk," Bond noted. He highlighted several key areas Congress needs to address to help bolster the tech sector.

They include extending and enhancing the research and development tax credit. TechAmerica and many other tech industry groups and firms argue that the U.S. credit now lags well behind the research incentives offered by other countries. "It has to be enhanced otherwise the default is to outsource innovation around the world," Bond said.

Other areas TechAmerica would like Congress to address include enhancing broadband deployment; cybersecurity; and reauthorizing the America COMPETES act, which authorized funding for basic research and development and science and math education and included other policies aimed at boosting U.S. innovation. The House Science Committee is set to markup the America COMPETES reauthorization bill Wednesday.