A new study by the public-policy think tank MassINC paints a grim picture of employment prospects in Boston and the Bay State. Some lowlights:

• Massachusetts ranked 49th in the creation of jobs during the last six years, and its share of the nation's technology jobs decreased.
• Some analysts predict the recent trend in services offshoring will accelerate
• In recent years Massachusetts has suffered job losses in the high-technology sector at a rate higher than the nation as a whole. Slightly more than 58,000 wage and salary jobs in the commonwealth's high-tech industries were lost between 2000 and 2005.
• Massachusetts' share of jobs in high-tech industries declined from 4.2 percent in 2000 to 3.9 percent in 2005.
• Massachusetts is still 100,000 jobs below 2001's peak level and ranked next to last in job creation, trailed only by Michigan.
• Massachusetts trailed its 10 economic competitor states, and each of its sister New England states, in job creation. It was the only one of those states that hadn't recovered all of its 2001 jobs by July 2007.

On Dice, the number of job listings for the Boston area dropped 9 percent in the fourth quarter, with December showing the first drop since June. (Seasonality is somewhat to blame.) Still, more than 3,800 listings are available. A more encouraging fact is in Dice's annual salary survey. It reports the average Boston IT salary is at $83,465, the second highest in the nation and up nearly 4 percent over last year. It beats the national average by almost $9,000. The 2008 Robert Half Technology Salary Guide agrees, finding Boston salaries to be 24 percent above the national average. Robert Half sees strong demand for network security administrators, software developers/programmers, and help desk specialists in the region.

Terrence O'Leary, branch manager of recruiter Sapphire Technologies' Boston office, sees some demand for project managers, business analysts, systems administrators and software developers, with J2EE and .NET dominating the requests. He thinks job hunters should look to the finance sector. "It fuels much of the demand for IT professionals in the Boston region. With big IT initiatives and integration programs following acquisitions, and as compliance system needs continue to evolve, the need for tech talent to support these efforts continues to be strong. The bio/pharma market has also been a consistent source of demand for large infrastructure resources for ongoing upgrade projects."

His last point is interesting. According to a study by the Lewin Group for the Advanced Medical Technology Association, Massachusetts has the fourth-highest concentration of medical technology jobs in the U.S., with 21,847 jobs. And the MaasINC report found the state is doubling the national rate in adding biotechnology jobs. From 2000 to 2005, Massachusetts added 10,000 biotech jobs, which now represents 2.4 percent of the Bay State's payroll jobs. As is the case in many other cities, biotech is one good place to aim an IT career.

Still, more tough times lie ahead. As MaasINC notes: "Given its wealth of human resources and exceptional quality of life, this state and this region should be faring better in the competition for new business and new jobs.... Given the competitive environment, we simply can't afford to sit on our hands and hope for a better future."