MoneyWatch Tech

August Tech Job Cuts Way Down from July

By Erik Sherman

Updated on: September 2, 2009 / 7:30 AM EDT / MoneyWatch

In a welcome reversal from July, planned job cuts in the tech sector dropped precipitously -- so much so that you might develop a touch of vertigo. It was a better than 88 percent drop from the previous month, far outpacing the overall economy in which planned job cuts were 21 percent lower in August than July, according to figures from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Here's a summary of the year so far:

Sector	January	February	March	April	May	June	July	August
Electronics	11,050	11,065	11,500	6,608	1,423	4,103	1,343	1,562
Computer	22,330	3,960	5,290	1,702	15,384	2,795	1,684	75
Telecom	13,056	5,666	250	262	812	802	17,601	749
Total	46,436	20,691	17,040	8,572	17,619	7,700	20,628	2,386

Whereas telecom represented the largest number of cuts in July, last month it was small, though not as tiny as computers. Here's a graph of the trends:

At the same time, and with apologies to John Dunne, no economic sector is an island, and overall announced layoffs are 60 percent larger than at the same time last year and near the 2008 total. Plus, tech can't sell much if there aren't businesses buying. According to Challenger, here are the top downsizing industries on a year-to-date basis:

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