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State lost 5,500 tech jobs in '04, fewer than in '03
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 04/20/06
BY DAVID P. WILLIS
BUSINESS WRITER

New Jersey lost 5,500 technology jobs in 2004, according to a report released Wednesday.
While the number of technology jobs fell to 197,100, the loss narrowed over the previous year, according to state figures compiled by the AeA, formerly the American Electronics Association. In 2003, the state lost 14,600 technology jobs.

Linda Klose, executive director of the AeA New Jersey-Pennsylvania Council, said she expected to see some job loss.

"I am grateful that it is not worse than it is," Klose said.

Klose could not point to any specific company cuts but said the decrease likely came as businesses cut jobs to save costs or moved positions out of New Jersey.

"I think you will find a lot of what has happened is to make do with less,"
she said. "All states are in competition with each other, as well as the world."

New Jersey was not alone. The United States lost 44,700 technology jobs in 2004 and 333,000 in 2003.

The report, titled Cyberstates 2006, covered the 50 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. Twenty-five states, including Virginia and Florida, added technology jobs in 2004 while 27 states, such as California and Texas, saw declines.

Among other findings in New Jersey, the AeA said:

Technology workers earned an average wage of $82,500 in 2004, making it the third-best-paying state for technology workers in the country. That salary figure represents 73 percent more than the state's average private sector wage. In 2003, the average technology wage was $78,500.

Telecommunications services represented the greatest number of jobs lost, 3,500, in 2004.
Economist James Hughes said the job losses in technology is a continuation of what has happened over the past decade. New Jersey lost 9,800 technology jobs between 1990 and 2004, he said. During that time, the U.S. added 1.3 million such jobs, he said.

"We were once almost a dominant high-technology sector with Bell Labs and Sarnoff Labs and Exxon Mobil," said Hughes, who is dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. "This is a sharp change from that once dominant position."
But there is a bright spot in the Cyberstates report, at least nationally. In 2005, the technology industry added 61,000 jobs, the first increase after a four-year decline, the AeA said. State figures were not available for 2005.

Klose said she did not think New Jersey's job loss is "horrendous. I think it is recoverable."
New Jersey needs to stress education in mathematics and sciences in young people and encourage advanced courses, Klose said. "We need to have an educated work force," Klose said.
The state also has to develop more business-friendly policies for companies, such as reinstating the tax credit for net operating losses.

"The atmosphere in New Jersey for business, as you know, has been less than friendly the last few years," Klose said. "We are all taking a wait-and-see attitude on this."