Some good news from the American Electronics Association’s (AeA) 10th anniversary Cyberstates report on high-tech employment - the United States added nearly 150,000 net jobs for a total of 5.8 million. AeA says 2006 was the second year in a row in which companies added jobs and is faster than the 87,400 jobs added in 2005.

These two years of growth represents an increase of 4%, according to Cyberstates 2007 report that was published last month.

In a statement, William T. Archey, AeA president and CEO said: “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. In fact, in 48 cyberstates the average high-tech wage is at least 50% more than the average private sector wage, and in 10 cyberstates this differential is over 90%."

The growth in jobs led Archey to comment that the U.S. tech industry has some “serious challenges ahead” as companies of all sizes continue to experience problems recruiting highly qualified and educated individuals – whether those individuals are foreign or domestic.

The report, which is based on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, found there to be a 2.5% underemployment rate for computer scientists, and the below 2% unemployment rate for engineers in 2006. AeA blamed the lack of U.S. students enrolling in and graduating from math, science and engineering programs, and a “U.S. highly-skilled visa system that is broken.” The AeA is a supporter of the foreign-born skilled-worker program and has called for the reform of the H1-B program, which often has too few visas for the number of applicants. In response to the early reaching of the 2006 skilled worker visa cap, John Palafoutas, AeA’s senior vice president for domestic policy said: “Denying entry of the world’s most highly educated talent into the United States is taking its toll. We should be stapling Green Cards to the diplomas of every foreign national who graduates from a U.S. educational institution with a masters or PhD, and we should keep the world’s best and brightest here in the U.S. to help strengthen our economy.”

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.

Jon Brodkin is senior writer at Network World.