In 2005 Maine had a low Broadband Index, as a result of low to average rating across all three categories; adoption, network quality, and economic structure. That same year Governor John Baldacci created the state’s Broadband Access Infrastructure Board (BAIB) in 2005 by executive order. The order set a goal that 95–98% of Maine communities would have access to broadband by 2010. The state also took advantage of the 2009 stimulus package in which Maine received a $25 million dollar grant to expand in areas that would enhance its’ broadband index.

The rapid transition from 3G to 4G mobile broadband networks should continue to stimulate new job creation in a short time frame, generating more than 231,000 jobs for every 10 percentage point gain in penetration rates within a year.

The adoption of cell phones and other mobile devices supported by a shift from 2G to 3G Internet and wireless network technologies led to the creation of nearly 1.6 million new jobs across the United States, between April 2007 and June 2011 – even as total private sector employment fell by nearly 5.3 million positions.

Employment in Internet companies is up 13 percent since the recession officially started in December 2007.

The Internet industry – which includes Google and Facebook – has boosted employment by 3.1 percent over a six month period ending in April 2010.

In the recession of 1990-91, software was a job leader, with software firms adding jobs in seven out of eight months of the downturn.

The 2.4 million shortfall in innovative sector jobs from 2000 to 2007, relative to projections, was a major contributor to the pre-bust economic weakness.

Taken together, the companies in innovative industries do roughly 75 percent of all the business in research and development, according to new data from the National Science Foundation. They also employ almost 70 percent of all R&D personnel.

In 2001, Bureau of Labor Statistics published projections implying that the innovative sector would create 1.7 million net new jobs by 2007. But the innovative sector actually lost almost 700,000 jobs from 2000 to 2007.

– presumed to be enabled by the ARRA broadband provisions ranged from the pessimistic scenario of 126,800 to the optimistic scenario of 400,800 with a mid range estimate of 263,800 over four years.