By Wailin Wong | Illinois ranks seventh in the nation for jobs
in the high-tech sector, according to a new report from the TechAmerica
Foundation.
 
The Foundation is the non-profit arm of industry association
TechAmerica and releases a yearly “Cyberstates” report about trends in
high-tech employment and wages. According to the national report,
high-tech employment slipped 4 percent in 2009, with the country losing
245,600 jobs during the year. TechAmerica counted 5.9 million high-tech
workers in the U.S. last year.

The latest data available for Illinois dates to 2008, and therefore does not fully reflect the recession-wrought decline seen in the 2009 national numbers. In 2008, Illinois added 2,900 high-tech jobs, which represented a 1.4 percent gain. Illinois’ overall private sector saw a 0.7 percent loss in its workforce in 2008. TechAmerica ranked Illinois as the seventh-largest cyberstate in 2008, unchanged from 2007.
 
The 219,600 high-tech workers in Illinois accounted for a total payroll of $17.4 billion in 2008, according to TechAmerica. In 2007, there were 216,700 workers with a payroll of $17.6 billion.
 
“Illinois’ high-tech industry showed some resilience in 2008, adding jobs…as recession was beginning to hit,” T. Kendall Hunt, chairman of TechAmerica’s Midwest Council and chief executive of Vasco Data Security International, said in a statement. “But more recent national data from late 2008 and 2009 show that the U.S. tech industry was finally hit by the global economic downturn, seeing significant job losses. We are hopeful that tech will help lead Illinois into recovery, but the evidence for that has not yet appeared.”
 
In Illinois, TechAmerica is pushing for the passage of state legislation that is aimed at encouraging technology investment, particularly in start-up companies.