Good news for Cisco and the biggest Cisco-Powered Network:
Today: April 15, 1998 at 8:27:30 PDT
Gov't Reports on 'Digital Economy'
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Information technology,
including business on the Internet, is growing twice as
fast as the overall economy, the Commerce
Department said today.
In the latest look at the impact of advances in
telecommunications and computing, the Commerce
report, "The Emerging Digital Economy," also found
that the industry employs 7.4 million workers, some of
whom earn among the nation's highest average
salaries.
Traffic on the Internet has doubled every 100 days and
Internet commerce among business will likely surpass
$300 billion by 2002, the report concluded.
Other findings:
-The Internet is growing faster than all other
technologies that have preceded it. Radio existed for
38 years before it had 50 million listeners, and
television took 13 years to reach that mark. The
Internet crossed the line in just four years.
-In 1994, a mere 3 million people were connected to
the Internet. By the end of last year, more than 100
million were using it.
-Without information technology, inflation in 1997
would have been 3.1 percent, more than a full
percentage point higher than the 2 percent it was.
-Workers in the information technology industry earn
an average of almost $46,000 annually, compared to
an average of $28,000 for the private sector overall.
Workers in the software and service industries are the
highest wage earners, at almost $56,000 annually.
"Information technology is truly driving the U.S.
economy - more than previous estimates had
revealed," said Rhett Dawson, president of the
Information Technology Industry Council, a
Washington-based trade group of U.S. information
technology companies.
The report recommends that governments stay out of
the growing industry, saying electronic commerce
shouldn't be "burdened with extensive regulation,
taxation or censorship."
Government instead should help provide legal
frameworks for business on the Internet, and rules
should result from "private collective action, not
government regulation" whenever possible, the report
said.
The Commerce Department said consumers must be
getting more comfortable making online credit-card
purchases: 10 million people in the United States and
Canada had purchased something on the World Wide
Web by the end of 1997, an increase from 4.7 million
people six months earlier.
The Commerce report also notes a shortage of highly
skilled workers and recommends that students be
better prepared.
"Countries that have an insufficient supply of skilled
workers will see high-skilled, high-paying jobs migrate
to countries that can supply the needed talent," the
report said.
Earlier this month, a Senate committee approved a bill
to raise the number of "H-1B" visas, which allow
high-skilled workers to remain in the United States for
up to six years -- from the current 65,000 annual limit to
a maximum 115,000 for each of the next five years.
The legislation came after computer companies
argued that the shortage of available talent would
dampen the industry's explosive growth. Organized
labor has complained that high-tech companies are
trying to guarantee themselves a constant supply of
foreign recruits to hold down salaries.
lasvegassun.com |
