560,000 Tech Pink Slips Issued Over Two Years

The American Electronics Association
Wednesday released a report which found that more than half a million U.S.
citizens lost their high-tech jobs from January 2001 to December 2002.

Specifically, 560,000 workers employed at high-tech firms such as HP, IBM,
or Lucent were laid off in the two-year period that saw the storied dot-com
bubble burst. Tech employment plummeted from 5.7 million jobs in January
2001 to 5.1 million jobs in December 2002.

AeA President and CEO William T. Archey said the findings strongly suggest
“that there is a need for economic stimulus including the President’s
package and specific proposals backed by the high-tech industry, such as the
Homeland Investment Act…”

Introduced last week by the U.S. Senate, the Homeland
Investment Act is one of several proposals put forth by politicians to
jumpstart the U.S. economy. It calls for U.S. companies to invest offshore
earnings in the U.S. economy. If passed, conservative estimates place the
inflow of cash at $135 billion. But more recently, some private groups have
upped that estimate to $200 billion or more.

To be sure, the economy remains sluggish and threats of war with Iraq
continue to drag down the stock market, consumer confidence and the overall
economic outlook.

High-tech manufacturing employment
shrank by 415,000 jobs, a 20 percent drop, between January 2001 and December
2002, while the nation’s communications services industry saw a nine percent
decline in its employment base with a loss of 135,000 jobs during the same
period.

The data processing and information services segment saw a loss of 1,700
positions, from 561,200 to 559,500, while the computer rental and
maintenance sector saw a whopping loss of 12,900 jobs, from 520,800 to
507,900.

But there does exist an encouraging anomaly for software specialists. While
the majority of high-tech workers were hung out to dry, Archey said the market for software services actually increased by 5,300 jobs.

“This is consistent with the fact that many of the innovations in the
high-tech industry are driven by software,” Archey said.

Still, in the crosscutting niche of software and computer-related services,
9,300 workers lost their jobs (from 2,201,000 to 2,191,700).

The study findings would seem to be solid, as they are based on employment
data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, but author AeA also happens
to be the nation’s largest high-tech trade association, representing more
than 3,000 member companies, so its reach is broad.