The TechAmerica Foundation posts some mixed data on U.S. tech jobs. Our nation's tech industry shed a quarter million jobs in 2009, followed by another 115,800 jobs lost in 2010. But in the first half of 2011, we regained nearly all of the 2010 losses. All four main tech job sectors showed growth from January to June:
- Engineering and Tech Services: +3.6%
- Software Services: +2.4%
- High-tech Manufacturing: +1.1%
- Communication Services: +0.3%
TechAmerica offers the following historical observation on how the U.S. can turn this apparent upswing into long-term growth, plus a warning that other countries are learning from that history:
The tech boom of the 1990s was built from a blueprint developed in the 1950s and 1960s that invested in future innovation. The United States made strong commitments to math and science education, invested heavily in public and private technology research and development (R&D), and welcomed the brightest minds in the world to our shores.
Even in the midst of a global economic downturn, countries around the world are now making similar investments to try to out-compete us and attract advanced industries to their shores. Fortunately, in many cases, so is the United States [TechAmerica Foundation, "Tech Industry Adds 115,000 Jobs in 1st Half of 2011," Competitiveness Series, October 2011].
Among TechAmerica's specific policy recommendations:
- Increase investment in technology in the classroom and math and science education (no mention of building bigger gyms).
- "Simplify, strengthen, and make permanent the R&D tax credit."
- Exempt foreign earnings from taxation.
I'd love to break down the numbers for South Dakota, but TechAmerica doesn't include our fair state in its featured press releases. We don't appear to be worthy of mention on their sample page of "Leading Cyberstates":
Our own public jobs data suggest a recession in South Dakota's tech sector—a phenomenon all the more noteworthy when we recall that the December 2007&ndashJune 2009 recession did not happen in South Dakota. South Dakota's information sector jobs reached a peak of 7500 in June 2007. Since then, our tech jobs have dropped. For the last year and a half, South Dakota's tech jobs have been hanging out in a doldrummy range of 6400 to 6600. That matches a brief low in the first half of 2005 and the yearlong average between 1997 and 1998.
With one university dedicated to high-tech education and with the high wages available, South Dakota should target the tech sector as a key area for growth. The economic development plan released by candidate Dennis Daugaard last year mentions health information technology as a potential area for growth, and it speaks of boosting math and science education. However, we need to make more progress in creating and keeping high-tech jobs in South Dakota.
I believe that the micro decline we're seeing is due to the Sandford grant and complete restructure of the state incentives programs. After the grant, the state basically went nuts and redirected all of their funding into "biotech". Of course, SD has never been a leader in this area so all of the money is basically being used as startups for various bits of research. The sad part is that a bunch of people that have never conducted any significant research before are being handed piles of cash. I tend to think that this is going to be a long term failure for SD.