New research indicates that some 540,000 high-tech jobs were lost in the United States during 2002. However, the American Electronics Association reported that the unemployment trend has slowed in 2003.

According to AEA’s annual Cyberstates study, the number of people employed by the U.S. high-tech industry fell from more than 6.5 million to less than 6 million last year, a decrease of 8 percent. The high-tech manufacturing sector experienced the greatest worker reduction, accounting for the loss of more than 233,000 jobs. The hardest-hit industries were electronic components, down 76,000 jobs; communications equipment, down 47,000; and semiconductors, down 41,000.

Another hard-hit segment was the software industry, which recorded its largest jobs decrease since Washington-based AEA began conducting its report in 1995. Software companies lost some 150,000 individual positions in 2002. The communications sector lost 146,000 employees.

The only high-tech sector to add jobs was the research and development and testing industry, where employment increased by 7,000 jobs.

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