Nevada loses tech jobs

Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2002 | 10:53 a.m.

Nevada has been stuck in 39th place in the nation in high technology employment since 1997 and actually lost 449 high-tech jobs in 2001, said a 2002 industry report by the American Electronics Association in Washington, D.C.

In Business Las Vegas, a sister newspaper to the Las Vegas Sun, this week reported Nevada's high-tech workforce fell 2.3 percent in 2001 while technology employment nationwide rose 1 percent.

The report said the slowdown is reflected in a 30 percent drop in the value of Nevada's technology exports to $486 million in 2001 from $697 million in 2000. Technology-related exports comprise 34 percent of Nevada's total exports.

Several factors that have kept Nevada in 39th place include an absence of a large cluster of hi-tech companies in Nevada comparable to that in Silicon Valley and issues about the quality of Nevada's technology workforce and infrastructure, said Michaela Platzer, AEA's vice president of research.