TECHNOLOGY : Employment Grows Slightly Over Year Among County’s Small Firms

Is there any sign of life in Orange County’s moribund high-tech economy?

There might be, according to figures provided by CorpTech Information Services, a research company in Woburn, Mass.

Employment at Orange County’s small high-tech companies grew by 404 jobs, or 3%, during the year that ended Aug. 10, according to a CorpTech poll of 213 high-tech firms in the region.

The county’s growth rate compared to a 1.8% growth in high-tech jobs across the nation during the same period.

The uptick was the first notable increase this year in employment at firms with less than 1,000 employees in Orange County. During July, the high-tech work force grew 0.2% year-over-year, but for most of the previous 12 months, the county saw more than 960 high-tech jobs disappear among the companies polled.

Among the fastest growing firms in the survey was Satellite Technology Management, a Costa Mesa company that makes satellite communications networks. The company expanded its work force 55% to 70 employees during the past year.

Wonderware Software Development in Irvine expanded 76% to 46 employees during the year, the survey said. Wonderware makes software for industrial computer applications.