April 6, 2001 -- SSTI Weekly Digest

Copyright State Science & Technology Institute 2002. Information in this issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest was prepared under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration. Redistribution to all others interested in tech-based economic development is strongly encouraged — please cite the State Science & Technology Institute whenever portions are reproduced or redirected. Any opinions expressed in the Digest do not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

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Boom or Bust for IT Workers?
Whether it is "pink slip parties" in San Diego, the Washington DC beltway, or Chicago to encourage networking and placement of laid-off information technology (IT) workers or Wall Street analysts lamenting the condition of the tech-related stocks, much of the talk in the IT hot spots of the U.S. has been doom and gloom. Many other areas of the country, though, whose economies do not have a preponderance of dot-com companies that went bust are still trying hard to educate and retain IT workers.

The spin of the stories and headlines on the release of When Can You Start?, the latest IT employment survey from the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) gives some indication of the perceived condition of local IT worker situations. Demand for new IT workers is down from last year -- way down. The good news is the gap or shortage between workers needed and those available is shrinking quickly -- very quickly.

Only the executive summary of ITAA's report has been released so far, but the more salient findings include:

The study, based on telephone surveys of a random sample of 685 IT managers from IT-based and non-IT businesses, will be available for purchase on April 21. The executive summary of When Can You Start? is available on the ITAA website: http://www.itaa.org/

On a related note, the Immigration and Naturalization Service reports that the number of H-1B visas granted has dropped 30 percent from a year ago. To address the demand for IT workers, the IT industry lobbied successfully last year for an increase the number of H-1B available. According to an April 2 article in Computer Reseller News, three of the top 10 employers of H-1B immigrants, Motorola, Intel and Cisco Systems, recently reported layoffs.

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R&D Remains Concentrated in Few States, but Intensity Changes
The latest Issue Brief from the National Science Foundation (NSF) shows research and development (R&D) expenditures remain heavily concentrated in a few states. Ten states -- California, New York, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Texas, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Maryland -- account for nearly two-thirds of national R&D investments. With the exception of California, which can claim one-fifth of the nation's R&D activity, there has been some movement in rankings of the top ten in the last four NSF reports:

State	1998	1997	1995	1993
California	1	1	1	1
New York	2	3	3	2
Michigan	3	2	2	3
Massachusetts	4	5	4	4
New Jersey	5	4	5	5
Texas	6	6	6	8
Illinois	7	8	7	9
Pennsylvania	8	7	8	6
Washington	9	9	--	--
Maryland	10	10	9	7
Ohio	--	--	10	10

The report also ranks the top ten states by individual component of R&D activity: industrial, federal and academic.

R&D intensity, as measured by the ratio of R&D to the Gross State Product (GSP) standardizes the data to eliminate geographic, demographic, historical, and natural resources among the states. Delaware moved from 11th in 1997 to the top of the states in 1998 for R&D intensity with a R&D/GSP ratio of 7.6 percent. The NSF Issue Brief points out that industrial R&D in Delaware more than doubled between 1997 and 1998.

The remaining top ten states for 1998 for R&D intensity are: New Mexico (6.4%), Massachusetts (5.6%), Rhode Island (5.5%), Maryland (4.9%), the District of Columbia (4.8%), Michigan (4.6%), Washington (4.4%), California (3.9%), and Idaho (3.6%). For comparison, the national R&D intensity was 2.5 percent in 1998.

The new Issue Brief (01-320), R&D Spending is Highly Concentrated in a Small Number of States, and the three previous briefs cited above are available at: http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/databrf/db.htm

New Organization to Address Women, Minority Tech Worker Shortage
The Council on Competitiveness has received a $2.3 million federal grant to support the establishment of BEST, a new nonprofit organization designed to turn around the critical shortage of women and minorities in the high technology workforce. The National Science Foundation awarded the grant, which includes funds from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and the U. S. Departments of Agriculture, Commerce-NIST, Defense, and Energy.

BEST (Building Engineering and Science Talent) will implement the recommendations of the Congressional Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering and Technology Development. The bipartisan commission conducted a 16-month assessment of gender, racial, and ethnic imbalance in the nation’s technological workforce. The commission found white males – 40 percent of the nation’s overall workforce – occupying 68 percent of all science, engineering, and technology jobs, while white women, at 35 percent of the national workforce, hold only 15 percent of these jobs. African-Americans and Hispanics, accounting for almost 21 percent of the workforce, are in just 6 percent of the high-tech positions. Those with disabilities, at 14 percent of the workforce, represent 6 percent of the technology workforce.

Under the terms of the grant, the Council will serve as fiscal agent during an “incubation period” of several months and set up an organizational and leadership structure for the new organization. Once fully incorporated, BEST will spearhead a three-year, $10 million effort to broaden the demographic base of the technical workforce by increasing public awareness, securing additional private support, and launching new policy initiatives. Eventually, one-third of the agency’s funding will come from federal agencies and two-thirds from the private sector. Its work will initially focus on identifying and benchmarking practices in high performance regions with a high demand for technically skilled workers. BEST will develop action plans addressing barriers to placing women and minorities in science and math education at the K-12 and higher levels as well as in the workplace.

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Useful Stats: 2000 Cumulative SBIR Phase II Results by State
The state-by-state results for the 2000 SBIR Phase II awards are presented on the accompanying webpage — as reported individually by 9 of the 10 participating federal agencies and compiled by SSTI. NASA awards will not be made until this fall. Totals may not reflect new awards or cancellations made by an agency after the initial award announcements. Abstract information for funded SBIR projects may be obtained on each agency’s SBIR website or by calling the federal agencies directly. Agency web sites are available on SSTI’s resource page.

The SBIR Phase II table for 2000 is available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/040601t2.htm

People
President Bush is nominating Floyd Kvamme as co-chair of the President's Committee of Advisors on Science & Technology (PCAST). Mr. Kvamme is a Partner with Kleiner Perkins, a high-tech venture capital firm based in California.

The President is nominating Bruce P. Mehlman to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Technology Policy. Mr. Mehlman has served as Telecommunications Policy Counsel for Cisco Systems since 1999. Before joining Cisco Systems he was General Counsel and Policy Director for the House Republican Conference and served as General Counsel for the National Republican Congressional Committee from 1996 to 1999.

For the Department of Agriculture, President Bush is nominating Iowa-resident Tom Dorr to be Under Secretary for Rural Development. The office oversees the USDA's economic development and digital divide programs. The President also intends to nominate Joseph J. Jen to be Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics.

The NIST Advanced Technology Program recently announced several
staffing changes and additions:

The e-newsletter of the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds, NASVF Net News, reports Sallie Traxler has become the Executive Director for the Council of Development Finance Agencies. Also, the e-newsletter reports Dan Loague has been promoted to the position of NASVF Executive Director.

Bill Borgmeyer has retired from his position as Coordinator of Technology Development for the Missouri Technology Corporation.

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