“At its height … the tech sector –- when we say ‘the tech sector,’ we mean the hardware side of producing, for example, computers as well as the software side that’s designing and writing programs,” says Dr. Walden, a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.

“At its height, it employed 85,000 people in North Carolina. Now we lost a fair number of those – about a third – due to the tech crash. And today we are about at 65,000 – there’s really not been much gain since the year 2000,” he adds.

“On the other hand, production is back: You’ll see that companies like IBM and others are selling more, but employment has not come back. So I think the companies are trying to be leaner and meaner. And they are very much concerned about the future, so they don’t want to hire and then have to fire people down the road.

“And the expectation is -- at least here in the United States -- there is going to be more growth in the tech sector on the software side (in application and management of software) and less so on the manufacturing of the actual computer.”