The U.S. high-tech industry has lost 200,000 jobs since the reces...

Center for Urban Economic Development at the U. of Ill. -- said despite recent growth in overall job numbers, there was “little evidence of significant job expansion in the IT industry,” which lost “a whopping 403,300 jobs” between March 2001 (when the recession began) and April 2004. “We are asking how can economic recovery be declared when there are no new jobs being created,” WashTech Pres. Marcus Courtney said in a call with reporters. He predicted the trend of IT job losses would continue. The report said national IT unemployment rates had been “steadily increasing” since 1998, peaking at 5.7% in 2002. Nik Theodore of the U. of Ill. said the IT industry lost 197,000 jobs during the 9-month recession - more than 9% of IT employment. The report, which analyzed key high-tech markets in the U.S., said the employment situation was “particularly bleak” in the San Francisco metropolitan area, which it said had a 49% IT job loss March 2001-April 2004 and 25% since Nov. 2001. It said between the recession’s official end in Nov. 2001 and April 2004, the IT industry nationwide lost 206,300 jobs (11%), with Boston losing 12,200 (21%), Chicago 10,200 (18%), Dallas 10,700 (21%), San Jose 14,000 (19%) and Seattle 1,700 (3%). It said since the recession’s official start in March 2001, the IT industry nationwide lost 403,400 (19%) jobs, with Boston losing 24,300 (34%), Chicago 16,400 (26%), Dallas 17,000 (30%), San Jose 30,600 (33%) and Seattle 6,400 (11%). The study said Washington, D.C., was the only metropolitan area examined, that -- after losing 8,300 (5%) during the recession -- added 4,100 jobs (2.5%) after the recession. CWA, which has donated 250,000 to a Media Fund organized to defeat President Bush, blamed the absence of a job recovery in the U.S. IT industry on wrong Bush Administration policies, especially on offshore outsourcing. Courtney said IT workers were “definitely beginning to organize and get active at the levels that historically we haven’t seen… Politically, they are starting to get engaged.” Courtney told us release timing wasn’t tied to the Presidential campaign but to “when the study was completed.” Courtney said H1B and L1 programs and offshore outsourcing were among major reasons for American IT job losses . He called for reforms, saying it was necessary to ensure that “employers are actually hiring employees domestically and are not using loopholes in those laws to directly replace best workers.” But a Va. immigrations attorney told us the visas made “an easy target for those looking for a scapegoat for high unemployment among U.S. tech workers.” He said H1B visas allocated for FY 2004 numbered 65,000, compared to 195,000 per year fiscal 2001, 2002 and 2003. According to a report by the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security, in 2002, about 38% of H1B approvals went to persons in computer-related fields, down from 58% in 2001.