U.S. IT Employment Up A Paltry 1.3 Percent

Employment in the U.S. high technology industry increased a relatively miniscule 1.3 percent in the first seven months of 2008, the AeA (formerly known as the American Electronics Association), said Wednesday.

While that marked the fourth straight year the U.S. tech industry has added jobs, the AeA said in a statement: "The pace of growth is slowing and, given the economic downturn and current disruption in the financial markets, future job growth will be " at best " uncertain."

Based on a study of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the AeA said the U.S. high tech industry added 78,300 jobs between January and July of this year. That is less than the 111,400 tech jobs the industry added during the same period in 2007.

The AeA report looks at four sectors within the high-tech industry: high-tech manufacturing, communications services, software services, and engineering and tech services. Employment in communications services dropped by 11,500 jobs or 0.9 percent during the seven-month period, the AeA said, while high-tech manufacturing shed 2,500 jobs or 0.2 percent.

On the plus side, high-tech services added 80,800 jobs between January and July for an increase of 1.8 percent. Within that segment engineering services added 50,000 jobs, a 3.1 percent increase. Software services added 42,300 jobs, a 2.6 percent increase.