U.S. tech sector growing – for now | The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Scranton PA

SAN JOSE, Calif. — California continues to employ far more technology workers, pay higher wages and attract more venture capital than any other state. But the overall U.S. tech sector is also growing at a surprisingly brisk clip — for now.

That’s the conclusion of a highly anticipated annual report by AeA, formerly the American Electronics Association.

According to the 2007 “Cyberstates” report, to be published today, the U.S. tech industry employed 5.8 million people last year — up 2.6 percent from 2005. The industry gained nearly 147,000 positions in 2006, compared with 87,400 jobs added in 2005.

Despite two straight years of job creation and salary gains, William T. Archey, president and CEO of Washington, D.C.-based AeA, warned that trouble lurks behind the rosy facade.

The unemployment rate for computer scientists last year was 2.5 percent, and for electrical engineers it was 1.9 percent. The low unemployment rates signal a dramatic worker shortage that will prompt more U.S. companies to open offices abroad.

Archey and other tech executives are urging Congress to make it easier for U.S. companies to hire highly skilled foreign workers under the so-called H-1B visa system.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reached its 65,000 limit for 2008 H-1B petitions in a single day and would not accept any more, to the dismay of tech companies.

Tech executives are also backing a federal bill moving through the Senate seeking more math and science teachers in poor schools.

A recent federal study found 40 percent of high school seniors failed to perform at the basic level on a national math test. On a national science test, half of 12th-graders didn’t show basic skills.

“Our big tech companies would like a lot of their employees to be here, but policies and the education system say to them, ‘Don’t do it,’ ” said Archey, whose members include tech blue chips such as Intel Corp. and IBM Corp., and hundreds of startups and mid-sized businesses from Boston to Silicon Valley.