Redmond, WA, November 19, 2003—Washington’s high-technology industry employment fell last year, dropping by 11,200 jobs, according to Cyberstates 2003: A State-by-State Overview of the High-Technology Industry, a new analytical report released today by AeA. The state ranked 15^th nationwide in high-tech employment. Venture capital investments in Washington dropped by nearly 50 percent, falling from $1 billion in 2001 to $568 million in 2002.

Cyberstates 2003 shows that Washington’s tech industry fell by 7 percent, with employment falling from 168,000 in 2001 to 157,000 in 2002. The state’s electronics manufacturing sector was down by 21 percent, with a loss of nearly 7,000 jobs, and the software sector had 3,600 fewer jobs in 2002 than in 2001.

"The most recent Cyberstates statistics confirm the decline of high-tech jobs last year," said Terry Byington, Executive Director, AeA’s Washington office. "Today’s challenge is to create a business climate that will reverse this trend."

Cyberstates 2003 also examines tech exports and venture capital investments. Washington exported $2 billion worth of high-tech goods in 2002, compared to $2.4 billion in 2001, a 15 percent drop.

Nationally, Cyberstates 2003 shows that high-tech employment fell by 540,000 jobs, dropping to 6 million in 2002. However, using preliminary data, we estimate that the tech industry will lose 234,000 jobs in 2003.

For the first time, Cyberstates 2003 is based on the newly implemented North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). This more current and comprehensive system allows us to capture several sectors, which we could not with the previous system. These include fiber optic cable manufacturers, semiconductor machinery manufacturers, and web search portals. Consequently, the data presented in this report are not comparable in any way to previous editions of Cyberstates.

Cyberstates 2003 is the seventh edition of AeA’s Cyberstates reports. The study includes seven chapters detailing national and state trends in employment, wages, and exports. Venture capital investments and research and development (R&D) expenditures are also examined. The report includes state rankings for each indicator. Cyberstates 2003 is based on the most current U.S. government data available.

• High-tech firms employ 73 of every 1,000 private sector workers in 2002, ranked 9^th nationwide

• High-tech workers earned an average wage of $94,705 (1^st ranked), or 153% more than the average private sector wage

• High-tech exports totaled $2.0 billion in 2002, ranked 17^th nationwide, down from $2.4 billion in 2001

• R&D expenditures of $10.5 billion in 2000, ranked 8^th nationwide

Washington’s National Industry Segment Rankings:

• 11^th in R&D and testing labs employment with 17,800 jobs

Source: Cyberstates 2003
Data are for 2002 unless otherwise noted.
2001 data are the most current for wages, payroll, establishments, and industry segment jobs.