The U.S. technology industry added jobs through the first six months of 2010 but remains well behind where it was a year ago, according to a report issued Tuesday, the Kansas City Business Journal reported.

Through June, employment with tech manufacturers, software services firms, and engineering and tech services firms increased by 30,200 people, or 0.5 percent, according to industry group TechAmerica Foundation, which used data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The gain offset a loss of 22,800 jobs in the communications services sector, which includes telecom and Internet companies.

Although the industry has added jobs this year, the 5.78 million total tech jobs represented a 1.2 percent decline from the 5.85 million employees working for tech firms in June 2009.

“Though the tech industry was among the last to feel the effects of the economic downturn of 2008-2009, it was not immune to job loss and is only slowly showing signs of climbing out of it,” Josh James, TechAmerica’s vice president of research and industry analysis, said in a release.

James said that the industry had a ways to go to replace all of its lost jobs and that doing so will hinge on a continued recovery of the entire economy. But with growth in three of the industry’s four sectors, “we remain guardedly optimistic,” he said.

The full report can be accessed at http://www.techamericafoundation.org/content/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/TechAmerica_CS_Midyear_Employment_2010.pdf