High-tech is hot again.

The U.S. high-tech industry is expanding, having added nearly 150,000 jobs in 2006 for total employment of 5.8 million. The industry is growing significantly faster than in 2005, when it added 87,400 jobs.

That’s the key finding a new report that the American Electronics Association (AeA), a technology trade group, plans to release today. The AeA’s Cyberstates 2007 report measures employment in electronics manufacturing, communications services, software, engineering and tech services.

The 10th annual Cyberstates report ranks the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico in the creation of new high-tech jobs, wages and other economic factors.

This is the second year in a row that the high-tech industry has added jobs, a sign that the protected dot-com bust is over.

"We are pleased to see the rebounding of the tech industry,"’ said William T. Archey, President and CEO of AeA, in a statement. "Not only do these jobs make critical contributions to the U.S. economy, but they also pay extremely well. The average tech-industry wage is 86% more than the average U.S. private sector wage."

The largest number of jobs was added by the software industry, which increased by 88,500 jobs. The tech-services industry increased by 66,300 jobs and high-tech manufacturing added 5,100 jobs. The communications-services industry continues to struggle, losing 13,300 jobs in 2006.

The biggest challenge for high-tech companies is finding enough qualified workers, according to AeA. The unemployment rate for computer scientists is 2.5% and for engineers is 1.9%.

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