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A new Census Bureau report shows a boom in the IT industry in recent years, citing big gains in everything from employment numbers to online spending.
The Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2000 was released last week by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau and is compiled from numerous sources of data, not including the 2000 Census. "We talked to about 300 different federal, private and international organizations to come up with this portrait of America," says Glenn King, chief of the Census Bureau's office of Statistical Compendia and coordinator of the report.
The 1,012-page abstract covers a range of topics, from prescription drug sales to prison operating expenditures. It has been published every year since 1878, and is being expanded to include analysis of new technologies and businesses. King says the bureau has just begun to examine many aspects of IT growth but will be looking more deeply into it in coming years.
According to the report, information technology (defined as hardware, software, and services for computers and communications) grew from a $371 billion industry in 1992, accounting for 5.9% of the U.S. economy's gross domestic income, to an estimated $815 billion or 8.3% of the economy in 2000. The software and services segment, which covers an area ranging from the sale of prepackaged software to systems design, was the fastest-growing category, more than tripling from a $75 billion industry in 1992 to one with an estimated income of $246 billion in 2000.
Gross Domestic Income in Information Technologies (IT) Industries: 1992 to 2000[in millions of dollars]
Industry
1992
1995
1998
1999
2000
Total all IT industries
371,080
491,292
665,530
746,092
814,727
Percent share of the economy
5.9
6.7
7.6
8.0
8.3
Hardware
110,050
155,409
210,914
226,214
243,506
Computers and equipment, calc. machines
24,102
31,036
39,211
42,622
46,330
Computers and equipment wholesale sales
39,743
51,114
75,084
81,106
88,162
Computers and equipment retail sales
1,915
2,861
3,407
3,687
4,008
Electron tubes
1,053
1,206
1,317
1,402
1,493
Printed circuit boards
3,556
4,406
5,527
5,604
5,683
Semiconductors
18,308
40,836
57,055
60,763
64,713
Passive electronic components
13,494
15,310
12,072
12,881
13,744
Industrial instruments for measurement
2,552
2,526
4,874
5,215
5,580
Instruments for measuring electricity
3,493
3,981
8,383
8,953
9,562
Laboratory analytical instruments
1,835
2,134
3,986
3,982
4,233
Software/services
75,490
111,350
185,609
213,986
245,644
Computer programming services
18,624
26,120
47,796
55,013
62,715
Prepackaged software
14,555
22,768
34,497
40,016
46,419
Computer integrated systems design
11,814
13,599
24,692
28,420
32,598
Computer processing and data preparation
12,554
21,844
28,062
32,300
37,048
Information retrieval services
2,879
3,910
8,977
10,333
11,852
Computer services management
1,910
2,090
2,942
3,386
3,884
Computer rental leasing
1,528
1,880
2,944
3,389
3,887
Computer maintenance and repair
4,989
6,949
10,029
11,544
13,241
Computer related services
4,406
9,305
21,261
24,472
28,069
Communications hardware
23,970
30,775
46,710
49,151
51,816
Telephone and telegraph equipment
10,251
12,139
21,807
22,592
23,405
Radio and TV communications equipment
10,134
14,310
20,642
22,252
23,987
Communications services
161,570
193,758
222,298
256,740
273,761
Telephone and telegraph communications
129,960
145,491
159,712
189,400
199,109
Television broadcasting
11,649
18,442
22,740
23,520
26,551
Cable and other pay TV services
14,992
21,778
29,798
32,266
35,231
An estimated 5.2 million people were employed in IT in 1998, up 33% from 3.9 million in 1992. That rate far outpaces the total private industry job growth of about 18% over that period. Again, software and services were the fastest-growing segment of the industry, up 90% to 1.6 million jobs in 1998 from 854,000 in 1992. Private-industry IT wages increased nearly 20% from an average of $25,400 annually in 1992 to $31,400 in 1998.
Information Technologies (IT) - Employment and Wages: 1992 to 1998
The total number of telecommunications carriers (including local service, wireless, and toll-service providers) increased 46% from 2,847 in 1994 to 4,144 in 1998. Telecommunications revenues saw a similar surge, jumping 41% from $175 billion in 1994 to $246 billion in 1998.
Telecommunications Industry - Carriers and Revenues: 1994 to 1998 [Revenue in millions of dollars]
Carriers
Telecommunications revenue (in million $)
Category
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
Total
2,847
3,058
3,832
3,604
4,144
174,890
190,076
211,782
231,168
246,392
Local service providers
1,574
1,675
2,028
2,066
2,239
99,011
103,792
109,273
108,568<
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