EXCERPTS:
"The U.S. wireless industry is booming as more consumers and businesses snap up smartphones, tablet computers and billions of wireless applications. But for the industry's workers, the story is less rosy.
In May, on the heels of a record year for industry revenue, employment at U.S. wireless carriers hit a 12-year low of 166,600, according to U.S. Labor Department figures released earlier this month. That's about 20,000 fewer jobs than when the recession ended in June 2009 and 2,000 fewer than a year ago.
The U.S. wireless industry is booming, but for the industry's workers, the story is less rosy.
While the industry's revenue has grown 28% since 2006, when wireless employment peaked at 207,000 workers, its mostly nonunion work force has shrunk about 20%.
The disconnect between employment and industry growth reflects the broader head winds lashing the U.S. job market, as consolidation, outsourcing and productivity gains from new technology and business methods combine to undermine job growth.
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Those advances do show up, however, in skyrocketing productivity statistics. In 2009, the latest data available, the output per hour of wireless-carrier workers jumped 24.3%, more than in nearly any other service industry, according to a Labor Department report in May. Since 2002, output per hour in the industry has nearly tripled.
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To be sure, the wireless boom is creating jobs in other industries and occupations, such as software development, publishing and media. Search giant Google Inc. has said it is generating $1 billion a year in mobile-related revenue and will hire more than 6,000 people this year, including many to work on mobile products. Start-ups such as Twitter Inc., Foursquare Labs Inc. and Flipboard Inc., meanwhile, continue to grow at a rapid clip.
