The American Electronics Association (AeA) has revealed its latest report on employment trends within the ‘tech sector' in North America, highlighting, that 140,000 new jobs were created between January and June of 2006. However, it was the semiconductor industry that saw the largest gains with 13,600 jobs added, a 5.6 percent rise over last six month period.

The high-tech services sectors (consisting of communication, software, and engineering and tech services) added 107,000 net jobs over the same time period for a total of 4.44 million jobs, a 2.5 percent rise. Within this sector, engineering and tech services added the most net jobs, 49,800, followed by software services, which added 44,500 net jobs. Even the communications services sector saw its first net job growth since 2000 - 12,700 jobs, or 0.9 percent, from January to June of 2006.

"The good news is that the U.S. high-tech industry is adding jobs for the second year in a row, and adding jobs across all tech sectors" said AeA's President and CEO, William T. Archey. "But job growth is by no means as strong as we believe it could be, and it continues to lag growth in the private sector as a whole. Strong tech growth benefits our economy because tech industry wages pay 85 percent more than the average private sector wage and support numerous other jobs."

"AeA believes job growth would accelerate if the United States were addressing its competitiveness challenges," continued Archey. "The lifeblood of a high-tech economy is a skilled and educated workforce. Yet our companies struggle to find workers to fill thousands of technical positions right here in the United States. Too many American workers lack the science, math, and engineering backgrounds for these positions. The problem is compounded because U.S companies face restrictions on hiring the best and brightest from around the world. Companies can't obtain visas to bring them here, and many highly skilled and educated foreign nationals are finding opportunities at home. We can't afford to let these talented individuals get away. One of every four scientists and engineers in the United States is a foreign national. They have created tens of thousands of high-paying jobs over recent decades."

The figures produced by the AeA cover the period before Intel Corp announced the loss of 10,500 jobs across marketing and manufacturing over the next 12 months. However, not all Intel job losses are in North America.

According to the AeA, skilled semiconductor and related technology workers should be well positioned to find new employment, considering the constrained environment overall.