The state's job growth is ebbing as expanding companies struggle to fill job vacancies, the report said. One cause of the problem is Massachusetts' declining population. From 1995 to 1999, the Massachusetts population grew 2.1 percent, greater than only New York among the leading technology states and less than half the U.S. growth rate of 4.5 percent. Massachusetts is projected to be one of the slowest growing states in population over the next 25 years, while California and Texas are among the fastest growing. If it weren't for 14,900 immigrants arriving in the state in 1999, Massachusetts would have lost population last year and each of the last nine years.
Immigrants are vital to the Massachusetts echnology work force.
Workers with H-1B visas, which are granted to highly skilled immigrants for up to six years, account for 13.1 percent of total new staff hires by technology companies as of April another Massachusetts Technology Collaborative study found. But skilled workers from abroad, while helpful, are not enough. Long-term solutions suggested in the study include improving education from kindergarten through college as well as in the work place. The lag in job growth is showing up most in software and communications services, one of nine clusters in the technology industry. Although 6,722 new jobs were added in the cluster in 1999, an increase of 6.7 percent, Colorado and California saw jumps of 17.9 percent and 11.4 percent, respectively.