Dear Business Week - did you *read* the study?
Dear Business Week, You cited an April study by the AeA in your "News Analysis" piece (your label, not mine) titled "The Myth of High-Tech Outsourcing" It says in part:
…High-tech employees are back in demand. The U.S. technology industry added almost 150,000 jobs in 2006, according to an Apr. 24 report by the American Electronics Assn. (AeA), an industry trade group. That was the largest gain since 2001, before the implosion of the tech bubble resulted in the loss of more than 1 million jobs in three years. The findings counter concerns—sometimes voiced by opponents of outsourcing—that high-tech jobs are being sent overseas…
I think I’m missing something. I don’t see how you reach that conclusion from those numbers. Let me run the AeA’s numbers again, and see if I can spot my mistake…
According to the quote, the tech industry (per AeA) lost "more than 1 million jobs" between 2001 and 2004. It then added 87,400 in 2005 and 146,600 in 2006 (according to the release on the AeA website) for a total of 234,000. "More than 1 million" minus 234,000 equals a number between 766,000 and infinity. So, to put it another way, the U.S. high tech industry has LOST at least 766,000 jobs since the start of the decade - - despite the fact that the economy is in it’s 6th straight year of expansion, with the stock market reaching major all time highs, and corporations experiencing unprecedented profits and extraordinarily healthy balance sheets.
This doesn’t even broach the fact that the AeA is an industry trade group with a vested interest in making the numbers as attractive as possible. Don’t get me started on using quotes from placement firms as your secondary sources. Just for the record: I’m not a protectionist. In broad terms, I’m in favor of free AND fair trade - - but these are serious, complex issues that need to be considered carefully. Uncritically parroting specious press releases from groups with a clear agenda in a respected national publication like Business Week does us all a disservice. If I’ve made a mistake in my analysis above, I will gladly correct it and publicly apologize for the error. If BusinessWeek is going to be worthy of my continued attention and dollars in a crowded media marketplace, it’s going to need to be willing to do at least as much. I look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
Paul Bryant
ps - I am pinging the relevant Techmeme cluster because I’d love to see this topic more seriously discussed.