Tech field in U.S. remains flat, but Seattle's climbing

While the nation has failed to regain even a quarter of the high-tech jobs lost during the downturn early in the decade, the Seattle area has managed to surpass high-tech employment highs of 2001, according to a study released today.

The report "Information Technology Labor Markets: Recovering, But Slowly" was written by the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois for Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, an affiliate of the Communications Workers of America.

The study looked at information-technology hiring practices up to February, the most recent month for which data were available.

It found that although the country's economy has been recovering in recent years, 402,800 IT jobs were cut between March 2001-04. The study said many of those jobs — which include writing code, designing software, data processing and customer service — were outsourced to other countries.

"This report takes it beyond the month-to-month snapshot of how people think about the economy," said Marcus Courtney, WashTech's president. "With 60 months of data, you see an industry that is extremely volatile for workers."

The two areas that have skirted the national losses and have seen a rebound are Seattle and Washington, D.C. To a lesser extent San Francisco has also started to rebound, and Boston, Chicago, Dallas and San Jose, Calif., have seen a modest recovery. IT employment in Los Angeles continues to fall.

The study said the Seattle metropolitan area added 11,700 jobs from 1999 to 2001. During the next two years, the area lost 6,200 jobs. From 2003-05, the area gained nearly 6,000 jobs. In the months since, hiring has continued with IT employment hitting nearly 60,000 jobs in February. That figure is slightly higher than in 2001, or before the recession.

WashTech attributed the job growth in Seattle and Washington to single employers. Courtney said government spending on homeland security generated most of the growth in Washington, and Microsoft, which has about 30,000 employees in the Puget Sound area, contributed in the Seattle area.

Tricia Duryee: 206-464-3283 or tduryee@seattletimes.com