Cuts in Tech jobs decrease…
…but are still higher than they were last year
In its latest quarterly job-cut survey of the telecommunications, computer, electronics and e-commerce sectors, the New York-based company reported 39,720 lost jobs for the quarter that ended June 30. That’s down 33% from the 59,537 jobs lost in the first quarter, which ended March 31.
The job cuts for the second quarter, however, were still 16% more than the 34,213 cuts announced in the same quarter a year ago, the company said. For the first six months of the year, Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported 99,257 tech job cuts; That’s up 56% over the 63,726 cuts recorded in the first half of 2004.
So… basically the tech job market still sucks, it just doesn’t suck as bad this quarter as it did last quarter. But the market still stucks much worse this year than it did last year. To someone who has been in the tech industry for twenty years, this is a far cry from a feel-good story.
“The economy is growing and many sectors are adding workers at a steady pace, but the technology sector has been conspicuously absent from this job creation,” Rick Cobb, executive vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a statement. “Some blame high oil prices — as one industry insider recently told USA Today, ‘Every dollar that goes into the fuel tank is a dollar that is not going to Best Buy.’”
“The other problem affecting the computer and electronics industries is that corporate customers have accumulated a large reserve of cash, but instead of investing it in new technology, they seem content to just hold on to it,” Cobb said. “The good news is that we had a significant drop in tech-sector job cuts last quarter, which could signal a return of better times.”
That is some pretty shaky “good news”. Relative to the past few years though, I guess some optimism in the market is some good knews.