15 Oct AeA: U.S tech industry added 78,000 jobs from January to July of '08
Washington, D.C . – The U.S. high-tech industry added 78,300 jobs between January and July of 2008 amid slowing economic conditions, according to an AeA employment study based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
AeA said although technology employment stood at for a total of 5.92 million jobs at the end of July, but that was before the slowdown intensified last month. Technology job growth in the first six months of 2008 was less than the 111,400 tech jobs added during the same period in 2007.
“This is the fourth straight year that the U.S. tech industry is adding jobs,” said Christopher W. Hansen, AeA’s president and CEO, “but the pace of growth is slowing, and given the economic downturn and current disruption in the financial markets, future job growth will be – at best – uncertain.”
The AeA report examined four sectors within the high-tech industry: high-tech manufacturing; communications services; software services; and engineering and tech services. In these categories:
- High-tech manufacturing employment is down in the first seven months of 2008, continuing the downward trend of the last 19 months. Technology manufacturers shed 2,500 net jobs for a total of 1.28 million jobs, a decrease of 0.2 percent.
- High-tech services employment is up, adding 80,800 net jobs, a 1.8 percent rise. Within tech services, the most significant growth occurred in engineering and tech services, which added 50,000 jobs, a 3.1 percent jump. Software services added 42,300 jobs, a 2.6 percent rise, and communications services decreased by 11,500 jobs, or 0.9 percent.