Florida remains the 4th ranked 'cyberstate'

   TechAmerica Foundation today released its 13th annual Cyberstates report detailing national and state trends in high-tech employment, wages, and other key economic factors. The report, Cyberstates 2010: The Definitive State-by-State Analysis of the High-Technology Industry, covers all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
   Florida remained the 4th ranked cyberstate employing 292,300 workers in 2008, the most current year for which state data is available. High-tech employment in Florida increased slightly with 1,100 jobs gained between 2007 and 2008. This 0.4 percent gain in the midst of recession compared with an overall 4.1 percent loss in the state’s private sector workforce in 2008.
   Florida is a leader in multiple high-tech sectors, ranking among the top three in space and defense systems manufacturing, photonics manufacturing, internet and telecommunications services, engineering services, and computer training.
   “The technology sector remains critical to Florida’s economy,” said N. Louis Shipley, VP and GM, Citrix Xen Products Group and Citrix’ representative to TechAmerica. “Even in the midst of the 2008 recession, Florida added tech jobs, while the private sector as a whole was shedding them. Anecdotal evidence, combined with more recent 2009 national numbers showing the U.S. tech industry shedding jobs for the first time in over half a decade, point to the fact that these trends are not likely to continue in the short term. The larger question is how can state and local policymakers support the tech industry and help it lead the state into recovery.”
   Nationally, the high-tech industry lost 245,600 jobs in 2009, for a total of 5.9 million workers. This recession–induced, four percent decline in tech employment is slightly lower than the five percent decline experienced by the private sector as a whole and follows four years of steady growth in tech industry employment.