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July 2006

Cutting the cord: telecommunications employment shifts toward wireless

Christopher C. Carbone

Throughout the late 1990s and into 2000, the telecommunications industry experienced unprecedented growth. This fast-paced growth was fueled largely by changes in Federal regulation, the anticipated demand for telecommunications products associated with those changes, and with rapidly developing technology. The subsequent employment downturn, one signal of the end of the "tech boom," was large and quick. Telecommunications shed 25.3 percent of its employees from the March 2001 peak through 2005. This employment bust took only 4 years, about a year less than the employment boom. This article details the telecommunications industry's growth and subsequent bust.

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