Over half of the 2002 layoffs occurred in the electronics manufacturing sector, jobs in the software sector fell 150,000 in 2002 while about 15,000 engineers were laid off during the period, the trade organization said Wednesday (November 19, 2003) in its annual Cyberstates report, which details employment conditions in the high-tech industry. The only bright employment spot for the high-tech industry in 2002 was in R&D and testing labs where jobs rose 7,000 from the prior year.

Since then, the rate of job attrition has slowed and although the AeA expects high-tech jobs to further decline in 2003, there would be fewer layoffs across the sector, the association said.

"While high-tech employment fell by 8 percent last year, preliminary 2003 data show a significant slowdown in high-tech job losses, with a decline of 4 percent," said William Archey, president of AeA, Washington D.C.

"We project that the 2003 high-tech job losses will total 234,000 down 57 percent from the 540,000 decline in 2002," Archey said.