In high-tech, another kind of job crunch

Even though the industry is thriving in Massachusetts, the shortage of new talent means that companies are less likely to spring up or stick around if there aren’t enough people to do the work.

Keeping the technology industry in Massachusetts is especially important because of its high salaries and extensive exports, which help generate activity across a variety of other sectors, from retail to construction to finance. The technology industry now employs nearly one of every 10 workers in the state.

“Businesses will follow the talent,’’ said Jane Oates, assistant secretary of employment and training administration who served as a policy adviser for the late senator Edward M. Kennedy.

The state is tackling the challenge on several fronts, promoting job training and facilitating a discussion about the labor shortage today with local tech industry leaders and the White House Business Council at the Venture Development Center at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

The council, created by President Obama in 2009, has met with executives in 175 communities around the country this year, hearing concerns about the film industry in Los Angeles and manufacturing in Portland, Ore., for example, in an attempt to stimulate job growth. In Boston, the discussion will be led by Oates.

Technology has rebounded strongly since the last downturn, helping keep the state unemployment rate, 7.6 percent, well below the national rate of 9.2 percent. More workers - nearly 265,000 - are now employed in the sector than before the pre-recession employment peak in 2008, according to Moody’s Analytics, a forecasting firm in West Chester, Pa.