Wisconsin hosts the nation's third-largest cluster of medical-equipment manufacturers as measured by employment (5,800 jobs), behind No. 1 California (13,100) and No. 2 Minnesota (12,600), according to "Cyberstates 2008," an annual state-by-state overview by the American Electronics Association.
The organization, known as the AeA, focuses on electronics, telecommunications, software and information services. It excludes the proliferation of bioscience and stem-cell technology firms around Madison.
Like the diagnostic scans from Wisconsin-made machinery, the Cyberstates report delivered a comprehensive snapshot of the weaknesses and strengths in the state's tech sector.
Of the 16 branches of technology tracked by the AeA, medical-equipment manufacturing represents the only toehold where Wisconsin appears among the top five states. California, Massachusetts and even Illinois appear with regular frequency in the various top-five tables. Wisconsin clusters in the middle of the pack by most tech metrics. It's 21st in high-tech employment and 34th for tech-sector wages, with an average $60,100 in 2006 compared to the national average of $79,500.
Most of the medical manufacturing jobs trace back to a single company: GE Healthcare Ltd., a division of the General Electric Co., which employs 7,000 in Wisconsin, including 4,000 in manufacturing, a spokesman said.
Medical electronics have been riding a wave of global demand, with booming demand in such relatively new markets as China and India. GE Healthcare last year reported for the first time that more than half of its $17 billion in sales came from outside the United States. Since its founding in the 1940s in Milwaukee, it has grown to 46,000 employees in 100 countries.
"Medical devices and medical equipment has been a growing sector in Wisconsin," said Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council. Other companies also tell a growth story, like TomoTherapy Inc., a maker of radiation therapy equipment in Madison with a staff of 700.
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee sees further growth for medical technology and aims to work with GE Healthcare and other companies on research and innovation in the field. Bioengineering disciplines, which include imaging, tend to attract lots of federal grant money, said UWM Provost Rita Cheng.
But growth is not always guaranteed, the AeA found.
Employment in the state's health-equipment sector peaked in 2005 at 6,548 after recovering steadily from the 2001 recession. But it fell by a net 793 jobs in 2006 to 2001 levels, according to the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which the AeA used in its analysis.
GE said it could not account for the job losses in 2006, even though it's the state's biggest employer in the sector. A GE spokesman said the company didn't close any plants in Wisconsin and had no meaningful job cuts. "Our strong base in Wisconsin is essential to support our global platform," spokesman Brian McKaig said.
Pennsylvania, the ninth-largest state for medical manufacturing, lost an even greater number of medical technology jobs that year -- 884, the AeA said. Across the U.S., however, medical equipment manufacturing has been a growth industry, adding a net 2,576 jobs in 2006.
In other sectors, the Dairy State ranked ninth in electronic-components manufacturing employment, with 7,300 jobs; and 14th in software publishers employment, with 4,900 jobs.
Wisconsin's high-tech industry added 1,600 jobs, for a total of 81,400 in 2006, the most current state data available.
But that expansion was uneven. Software services added 700 net jobs, and engineering and tech services added 1,800 jobs.
But overall, the state lost 600 jobs in tech manufacturing, which includes everything from computer hardware to control instruments and semiconductors. Telecommunications employers shed a net 300 jobs.
Wisconsin's tech wages also lagged national levels. Wisconsin's tech sector pays 65% more than state's average private sector wage. Nationally, however, tech employers pay 87% over the average national wage. That puts Wisconsin at No. 38 in what the AeA calls the pay differential. Four states, incidentally, pay more than double their state average: California, Washington, Idaho and Oregon.
Nationally, the tech sector lost jobs in manufacturing in seven of the nine branches of the tech industry, it said. Only medical technology and defense electronics showed manufacturing growth, while makers of computer hardware, peripherals and semiconductors all shed jobs. It used 2007 data for national employment trends.
The AeA, founded in 1943, ended up with a focus on IT and electronics engineering as a legacy of its founder, David Packard, a co-founder of Hewlett-Packard Co. and one of the Silicon Valley's most celebrated garage entrepreneurs.
To see more of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.jsonline.com. Copyright (c) 2008, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
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