Abstract
For most of the past 10 years, high-technology employment has grown steadily, and the high-technology industries, which are more important to New England than to the US as a whole, seemed recession-proof. In the past year, though, the computers and electronics industries have fallen into difficulties. Both US and foreign manufacturers misjudged the strength of the market, thus contributing to excess capacity worldwide. These difficulties raised doubt about the future of high-tech industries in the US. The US is likely to remain a producer and exporter, as well as an importer, of a wide variety of manufactured goods, including high tech products. Rather than losing its high-tech industry to other countries, the US will continue, along with overseas producers, to serve a demand for high-tech products that will soon be growing again around the world.