Report: High-speed Internet to create jobs

LATEST NEWS
3:51 PM EST Wednesday
Report: High-speed Internet to create jobs

While Florida lost 13,600 high tech jobs in 2002, a new study shows that widespread broadband deployment in the state would create 72,000 new jobs in telecommunications and related fields and generate $27 billion in new economic output.

Citizens for a Sound Economy, a grassroots organization that promotes economic policies, released the report, “State Economies Can Benefit From Broadband Deployment.”

The telecommunications sector, the key to widespread broadband deployment, has suffered dramatically since 2000, losing 683,000 jobs nationwide and $2 trillion in market capitalization, CSE reports. In November alone, more jobs were cut from the nation’s telecom sector than in any other economic sector — the second time in 2003 that telecom has set the country’s benchmark for job loss.

The study shows that widespread rollout of broadband would create over 26,000 new jobs in Florida in the telecom sector itself-great news for laid-off tech workers in the Sunshine State. These jobs would be matched by thousands of “spillover” jobs in related businesses.

© 2003 American City Business Journals Inc.