Tech layoffs soar 74.2 percent in 2008
Job cuts in the tech sector surged to 74.2 percent last year, as the industry was battered by an unrelenting wave of layoffs, according to a report released Thursday by Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
During the year, 186,955 jobs in the telecommunications, computer and electronic sectors were slashed, marking a substantial increase over the previous year.
And bulk of those cuts, nearly three-quarters, came during the last six months of the year, the report noted. That drove the tech sector to unemployment levels not seen since 2003, according to the report.
"Through the first half of 2008, it looked as though the tech sector might be one of the few areas of the economy to remain resistant to recessionary pressures. However, the economy's continued slide here and overseas saw consumer and corporate demand for technology products and services drop rapidly,and these firms were suddenly under pressure to make significant cost-cutting moves," John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in statement.
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