Area Development
Last year the U.S. high-tech industry lost 115,800 net jobs-or 5.75 million workers-- according to TechAmerica Foundation's 14th annual report providing a detailed look at both national and state trends in high-tech employment, wages and other key economic factors.

"Cyberstates 2011: The Definitive State-by-State Analysis of the U.S. High-Tech Industry" covers all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. It uses national employment data for 2010, and national wage data for 2010. (TechAmerica sells it for $150)

Fortunately, the two percent decline in tech industry employment in 2010 was less than half of the 249,500 jobs lost in 2009; a loss which followed many years of sustained growth, noted the report. From 2007 to 2010, during the economic downturn, the tech industry fared better then the private sector as a whole, with a four percent decline in employment versus a seven percent decline in the private sector.

Regarding individual state performances, a few key findings were:

Other key findings from "Cyberstates 2011" include:

Better news: This month TechAmerica also released its mid-year update. This new data indicates the tech Industry added 115,000 jobs in the first half of 2011 (a 2 percent increase) for an industry total of 5.89 million jobs. During the same period of 2010 the industry added 21,700 net jobs, or 0.4 percent. On a year-to-year basis, from June 2010 through June 2011, tech added 111,900 jobs, a 1.9 percent increase.

All this activity indicates that the industry is definitely showing signs of "slowly coming out of the economic downturn" said the Foundation. Engineering and tech services jobs are leading the pack.