The AeA, formerly known as the American Electronics Association, said the US high-tech industry's workforce lost 540,000 jobs in 2002 to fall to 6.0 million.

Preliminary figures suggest the job losses for 2003 will be more modest, at around 234,000, the AeA said.

"While high-tech employment fell by eight percent last year, preliminary 2003 data show a significant slowdown in high-tech job losses, with a decline of four percent," said AeA president and chief executive William Archey.

"However, these declines have caused us to pause about two important issues. ... Now is not the time to cut back on education, particularly in math and science. We need a world-class workforce to deal with world-class challenges. Our second concern is the decline in basic research, particularly in technology, by the federal government. We worry that we have eaten the seed corn of federal research of 20 and 30 years ago that is not being replenished."

According to the survey, high-tech manufacturing industry employment fell by 13 percent in 2002, losing 233,000 jobs. The biggest manufacturing job losses were in electronic components (76,000), communications equipment (47,000) and semiconductors (41,000).

The communications services and software sectors each lost 146,000 jobs, while jobs in engineering and tech services dropped by 15,000.

Research and development and testing labs added 7,000 jobs in 2002, according to the AeA.

SPACE.WIRE