The region's technology industry appeared to hold up well during the worst of the dot.com-telecom meltdown, propped up by solid gains in the computer and telecommunications sectors, according to the Pittsburgh Technology Council's fourth annual "State of the Industry" report released yesterday.

	Anita Dufalla/Post-Gazette

The six-county Pittsburgh area added 5,342 technology-related jobs in 2001, counting technology firms and the companies that support them. That brought employment to 227,886, up 2.4 percent from the previous year.

During the same period, the number of technology and tech-support companies jumped by 723 to 8,752, up 9 percent from the year before, according to the council's report, compiled by Carnegie Mellon University researchers.

The gains claimed by the council came in the midst of the dot.com bust that began in 2000 and the subsequent telecom collapse.

The council's broad definition of "support" firms included a host of companies "important to the productivity and competitiveness" of technology companies, such as suppliers.

Pittsburgh Technology Council President Steven Zylstra called the growth "remarkable" given the state of the industry.

"Nationally, the technology sector has endured the toughest period in its history over the past couple of years," he said at a morning news conference at council headquarters in Hazelwood.

Tech companies here "have weathered the storm as well as, if not better than, their counterparts across the country."

The study focused on companies in five core industry "clusters," including computers and telecommunications (information technology), biomedical/biotechnology, plastics and other advanced materials, automated manufacturing, and environmental technology and services.

	Related information Where the tech jobs were in 2001

Information technology posted some of the strongest gains. Employment rose 2.7 percent, to 37,438, while the number of companies jumped 18.3 percent, from 1,311 to 1,552.

Information technology "is where the real strength is," Zylstra said.

"The fact that we had a net positive increase in the number of companies and jobs created between 2000 and 2001 I think is remarkable given the collapse of the dot.coms" and the "excruciating pressure" in the telecom sector.

On the downside, the advanced materials manufacturing sector lost jobs in 2001, with employment falling 3.8 percent to 19,514. The average annual wage also dropped, by 1.9 percent, to $48,318.

The only other sector to post a decline was biomedical/biotechnology, where the average wage skidded 4.2 percent to $50,750. Total employment in the biomed/biotech sector rose by 10.7 percent to 6,842, while the number of companies increased 5.3 percent to 79.

(Figures for the advanced materials and biomed/biotech sectors included the broader 13-country region because six-county figures weren't available.)

Zylstra also noted that despite some recent hype, Pittsburgh's biomed/biotech industry was still in its infancy.

"We have a very fledgling sector in terms of the number of enterprises," he said.

Although the region is strong in biotech research at the university level, the area is "just beginning to build a base of companies," he said.

Zylstra said the chief challenge in the tech arena is attracting and retaining talented workers.

As one of the few large region's of the country losing population, he said, Pittsburgh "must attract talent from all over the world."