Jobs in communications,
By Pete Pichaske
software and computer services
are sorely lacking
Phillips News ServiceWASHINGTON -- Anyone expecting the high-tech industry to pull Hawaii out of its economic slump had better expect again.
A survey of the nation's high-technology job market found that only four states have fewer high-tech jobs than Hawaii, and only two have a smaller proportion of their work force in the industry.
Moreover, Hawaii was one of only a handful of states that lost high-tech jobs in the past half-dozen years, and it lost a bigger proportion of its jobs than all but two other states.
Officials with the American Electronics Association, which produced the survey, could not explain Hawaii's poor performance.
But AEA President and CEO William T. Archey listed the top factors that attract high-tech industry, and all seemed to work against the isles.
Those factors include: the quality of the education system; the presence of a top-flight research university; the existing presence of other high-tech firms, since such firms tend to "cluster"; and the area's quality of life, a term that includes the cost of living.
"Hawaii is very expensive and that is a huge factor," said Archey.
The AEA survey found that Hawaii had 6,309 high-tech jobs in 1996, the last year for which figures were available, which was 12 percent less than 1990. Only North Dakota, Montana, Alaska and Wyoming had fewer jobs.
The survey also found that 15 of every 1,000 private-sector workers in the state had high-tech jobs.
Only Wyoming and Montana had smaller proportions.
About three-quarters of the state's high-tech jobs were in communications services, with the rest about evenly divided among software services; rental, maintenance and other computer services; and data processing and information services.
State economic development officials, however, say the survey did not count many jobs they consider high-tech, including those in ocean sciences, astronomy and film animation, where Hawaii is doing well.
The states with the most jobs were, in order, California, Texas, New York, Illinois and Massachusetts.
The fastest-growing states for high-tech employment were Georgia and Washington.
