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SANTA CLARA - 11/20/03 - California's high-technology industry lost 123,000 jobs between 2001 and 2002, according to Cyberstates 2003: A State-by-State Overview of the High-Technology Industry, a new analytical report released today by AeA, the nation's largest high-tech trade association.

Cyberstates 2003 shows that California's tech industry dropped by a full 11% in 2002 to 995,000 workers.
 
"The latest Cyberstates data clearly show that California's high-tech industry was hit hard last year by the economic slowdown," said Roxanne Gould, AeA vice president for California Public and Legislative Affairs, "and in 2003, the state legislature took a decidedly anti-business view."

Today, she said, "California is less pro-business and less high-tech friendly. We call on the new Governor to reverse this trend and revitalize California's pivotal, yet struggling high-tech industry."
 
Cyberstates 2003 also examines tech exports and venture capital investments. California exported $44 billion worth of high-tech goods in 2002, compared to $56 billion in 2001 - a 21% drop.
Similarly, venture capital investments in California dropped by 43%, falling from $16 billion in 2001, to $9 billion in 2002.
 
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 tech employment, wages, exports, venture capital investments and R&D expenditures.

The report includes state rankings for each indicator and is based on the most current US government data available.

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