State ranks 21st in high-tech employment
10:05 PM 11/18/03
Jason Stein Business reporter

Wisconsin ranks 21st in the country for high-tech jobs, a new study says. <

The report by the American Electronics Association ranks states based on information and computer jobs and places Wisconsin in a group that includes Missouri, Indiana and Connecticut. <

"I think it's pretty amazing that Wisconsin is 21st in the country. You're up there with states like Arizona and Oregon," said Michaela Platzer, vice president of research in the association's Washington, D.C., office. <

The report showed that in 2002, Wisconsin's high-tech jobs fell by 6.7 percent to 79,300, from 85,000 in 2001. But the country as a whole fared worse, losing 8.3 percent of the jobs in the industry. <

"The overall state of the economy is what really created this environment," Platzer said. <

Not all the news for Wisconsin, however, was good. The state placed 35th overall in terms of salaries for high-tech workers. Nationally, the average yearly salary for workers in the electronics industry was $66,349, compared to only $50,296 a year in Wisconsin. <

"Our industry mix is such that we don't have as many high-paying segments of the industry as other states," said Sammis White, a professor of urban planning at UW-Milwaukee. <

White also pointed out that only 34 out of every 1,000 Wisconsin workers - or 3 percent - are employed by electronics or related firms. "That's a far cry from Colorado," which leads the nation with a 9 percent high-tech employment rate, White said. <

Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, pointed out that the salary for a Wisconsin worker in a high-tech industry was nearly $20,000 more than the average of $31,180 for private sector workers in general. <

"These are the kind of jobs we need to seek out and retain," Still said. <

The Electronic Association's study relied on data from the federal bureaus of Labor Statistics and the Census.