Internet economy has created 1.2M jobs

[dhilipkumar]

Study: Internet economy has created 1.2M jobs

Internet business contributes 2.1%, or $300 billion, to the total GDP (gross domestic product) of the U.S. And IT and related online business may be faring better in this recession than they did in the dotcom bubble of 2000-2002, still growing revenue but at slower pace.

Consumers are now making 10% of their retail purchases online, with the exception of groceries, on the Internet, and Internet-based advertising has increased four-fold since 2002 to more than $20 billion, said John Deighton, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, and one of the authors of the study along with Hamilton Consultants Inc.

The number of indirect jobs supported by Internet-related activities may raise the total number of jobs by 1.54 million, or to slightly more than 3 million supported jobs.

E-commerce companies, as well as those that deliver the physical goods, were the major employers, with more than 500,000 of the 1.2 million jobs. Internet service providers followed at 181,000. Content-related employment was estimated at nearly 60,000, and software as a service, 31,500.