Study Says High-Tech Job Woes Lessening

About 12% of the nation’s high-tech jobs have evaporated in the last two years, but the meltdown may be in its final stages, according to an industry report to be released today.

After wiping out 540,000 jobs in 2002, high-tech employers are on pace to lay off an additional 234,000 workers this year, based on figures compiled by the AeA, the trade group formerly known as the American Electronics Assn.

Based on the group’s estimates, the industry will end this year with about 5.73 million workers, down from 6.5 million employees at the end of 2001.

California accounted for 123,000 job losses in 2002, or 22% of the national total. The study didn’t provide a state-by-state breakdown of the 2003 job cuts.

As hard hit as it was, California ended 2002 with 994,700 high-tech jobs -- more than twice as many as Texas, the nation’s second-largest high-tech hub with 478,900 employees.

Wyoming was the nation’s most sparsely populated high-tech state, with 4,357 employees in the industry.