Tech Industry Beginning To Add Jobs

The Tech America Foundation, a high-tech industry group, says technology companies added 30,200 U.S. jobs in the first six months of 2010 and, while the industry was among the last to lose jobs at the start of the recession, it's among the first to begin adding jobs.

The Tech America Foundation report, based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, focused on four sectors: tech manufacturing, communications services, software services, and engineering and tech services, which added the most jobs with 29,700. Software services added the second most jobs with 14,200, followed by tech manufacturing at 9,100. Those gains, however, were offset by the 22,800 job losses in the communications services sector, which includes Internet and telecom companies. While the industry is now adding jobs, it still has a ways to go to get back to where it was before the recession hit. As of June, 5.78 million U.S. workers were employed in tech fields, compared to 5.99 million in January 2009, according to Josh James, TechAmerica Foundation's vice president for research and industry analysis.