While most sectors have struggled to find their footing in the recovery, technology firms appear to be firing on all pistons, the Challenger, Gray & Christmas jobs survey says.
Evidence of the sector’s strength can be seen in the latest layoff tracking, which shows that planned job cuts by tech firms through the first half of year are down 70 percent from a year ago, Challenger Gray said.
From January through June, employers in the computer, electronics and telecommunications industries announced plans to cut 35,375 jobs from their payrolls.
The midyear total represents a 70 percent drop from the same period a year ago, when tech-sector job cuts reached 118,108, the highest six-month total in seven years.
The decline in tech-sector job cuts began in the second half of 2009. After reaching 118,108 in the first six months of the year, the pace fell by more than half (52 percent) to 56,521. The six-month total in 2010 is 37 percent below the second-half total from 2009.
The biggest decline in technology job cuts occurred among electronics firms, which saw job cuts drop 95 percent from 45,799 in the first half of 2009 to just 2,406 through June 2010. Downsizing among computer firms fell 67 percent to 16,964 job cuts, down from 51,461 a year ago. Telecommunications firms have announced 16,005 job cuts in 2010, 23 percent fewer than the 20,848 cuts at the same point in 2009.
Technology market research firm Gartner Inc. in Stamford estimates that global unit shipments of personal computers will grow by more than 20 percent in 2010, after posting an unexpected 4.7 percent gain in 2009.
“While companies have been slow to add workers in the recovery, they are quickly adding and updating technology after many months of postponing such expenditures,” said CEO John A. Challenger. “They aren’t the only ones increasing their tech budgets. Despite ongoing effects from the recession, consumers appear to be spending more on smart phones, tablet computers, laptops and other electronic gear.”
