May Tech Job Cuts Up Sharply

(MoneyWatch)  We got the May job cut numbers from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, and the welcome trend of lowering job cuts continues overall. Unfortunately, the tech sector bucked the trend, more than doubling announced layoffs compared to April.

Sector	January	February	March	April	May
Electronics	11,050	11,065	11,500	6,608	1,423
Computer	22,330	3,960	5,290	1,702	15,384
Telecom	13,056	5,666	250	262	812
Total	46,436	20,691	17,040	8,572	17,619

Compared to April, the announced job cuts in the high tech in May were up about 106%, or more than double. What really drove the increase was the computer sector, where job cuts rocked up nine-fold. There were a number of companies that found themselves announcing additional job cuts last month, including Applied Materials (300) and Dell (260), but some of the big hits came from HP (6,400) and Medtronic (1,800). We're not counting the 3,000 laid off at Microsoft because the company had already announced them.

If anything, the jump shows that high tech is still running scared and reacting to poor earnings, so looking for a rebound in the near future seems unrealistic. More to the point, many companies seem to be leaving the door open to additional layoffs.

Executioner image via stock.xchng user sateda, standard site license.