Tech Could Be Worse -- and Has Been
In the wake of layoffs, people wring their hands and think that the sky is falling. Sometimes historical perspective can be useful, and as a report from outsourcing firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas notes, as bad as it seems now, it's been far worse.
According to their figures, high tech companies cut 186,955 jobs last year. Take electronics, computers, and telecom together, and the quarterly pattern is interesting:
| Quarter | Total Job Cuts |
|---|---|
| Q1 | 17,345 |
| Q2 | 33,644 |
| Q3 | 69,654 |
| Q4 | 66,312 |
"Cuts could reach even higher in 2009, as there is no evidence yet that the economy has hit the bottom of this downward portion of the cycle. We almost certainly will not see a repeat of the 2008 first quarter in which tech cuts totaled just 17,345," said [firm CEO John A.] Challenger.But telling in an odd way was the headline to the job numbers release: Technology Job-Cuts Reach Five Year High.
Five years? Is that all? Apparently it is. Challenger Gray also had a table of annual job-cut announcements for high tech from 2001 through 2008.
| Year | Number of Jobs Cut |
|---|---|
| 2001 | 695,581 |
| 2002 | 468,161 |
| 2003 | 228,325 |
| 2004 | 176,113 |
| 2005 | 174,744 |
| 2006 | 131,181 |
| 2007 | 107,295 |
| 2008 | 186,955 |