Mass. falls behind Florida in tech jobs

Massachusetts lost nearly 40,000 high-tech jobs last year and tumbled a notch to fifth among US states, behind Florida, according to the latest rankings from the American Electronics Association.

The association's report, "Cyberstates 2003," is scheduled to be released today. It shows the Massachusetts technology job base shrinking by 13 percent to 255,744 workers in 2002. That percentage falloff was the steepest among the largest states and dropped Massachusetts below number four Florida in high-tech employment. The top three states were California, Texas, and New York.

For Massachusetts, job losses were especially heavy in computer systems design and telecommunications services. "That was disappointing news," said Anne Doherty Johnson, the executive director of the association's New England office. "I think it points to the need for the Massachusetts high-tech industry to work with the House, the Senate, and the governor to promote a probusiness environment."

There was little crowing in Florida, though. It grabbed fourth place in tech employment not because of any gains, but because it lost fewer jobs than Massachusetts. Florida's technology employment declined 5 percent, or 13,600 jobs, to 271,200 last year. "We aren't celebrating," said Maryann Fiala, the association's director in Florida. "When we were fifth, we weren't living up to our potential given that we're the fourth most populous state."

Fiala suggested Florida has weathered the tech recession better than Massachusetts because its tech sector is made up of more than 17,000 companies, most small or midsized. "We don't have a lot of giants," she said. "Perhaps companies here are more nimble and able to adjust. Or maybe we just don't have as many people to lay off," she said.

One Florida company that grew last year was Harris Corp., a Melbourne communications equipment company that won new orders from the Pentagon. "We hired 1,000 people this past year just in our government business," said Harris spokesman Sleighton Meyer.

Massachusetts had just under 12,000 tech companies last year. It ranked second, behind California, in two other categories: research and development per capita, and venture capital investments.

"Massachusetts still has a strong research and development base," said Michaela Platzer, vice president of research for the electronics association, who prepared the Cyberstates report based on numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. "New technology and new businesses grow out of that strong research and development base."

The report tracks what may turn out to be the trough of the technology recession, with US states continuing to hemorrhage high-tech jobs across a broad range of fields. Nationally, high-tech employment fell by about 540,000 to 6 million jobs in 2002. But extrapolating from nine-month figures, the association estimated the job loss for 2003 will narrow to about 234,000. There were no comparable 2003 estimates for individual states. "It appears that we are now losing fewer jobs in the technology arena," Platzer said.

That may be the case in Massachusetts as well. "We don't have a crystal ball, but a lot of people believe we've hit bottom," Doherty Johnson said. "It looks like things are beginning to pick up."

Paul Lacy, chief financial officer for Kronos Inc. in Chelmsford, which sells employee management software, said his company is hiring more than 150 people this year and is getting more opportunities to demonstrate products to potential customers. "That's the beginning of a better selling environment," he said.

Robert Weisman can be reached at weisman@globe.com.