border=0 alt="IT Salary Data" align=right
src="http://www.it-toolkits.com/images/Salary_Survey_IT.gif" width=85
longDesc="IT Salary Data" height=110> Job cuts in technology were
fierce in 2009, but 2010 is expected to see modest growth in a number of
subsectors. The last time layoffs were this bad was in 2005.


Job cuts in technology were fierce in 2009. Last year saw 174,629 jobs lost
in the sector, catapulting up 12.3 percent from the 2008 cuts of 155,570 jobs,
according to an outplacement company which tracks industry numbers on announced
layoffs. Technology – still considered by the Department of Labor to be one of
the most promising industries for future job creation – has not seen that many
layoffs since 2005.


The worst of the downsizing occurred in the first quarter, which is when the
overall economy hit rock bottom. The recession’s impact on the tech sector was
inescapable.


The technology-focused blog TechCrunch developed its own “layoff tracker” Web
application, which has been documenting layoffs in the sector since October
2008. For comparison, as of its last update in November 2009, TechCrunch had
reported a total of 350,299 employees laid off – roughly 20,000 more, but
certainly in the same ballpark.


The tech sector accounted for about 13.2 percent of the total 1.3 million
announced job cuts in the United States in 2009, said Challenger, Gray &
Christmas. By subsector, electronics fared the worst with 65,000 jobs cut – up
55 percent from 2008 – while telecommunications lost 9.4 percent fewer jobs in
2009. The computer industry was unchanged.


It’s going to be a slow climb out of this recession, but computer and
electronics firms should be among the first to see the turnaround, as companies
try to postpone hiring by achieving productivity gains through technology. Even
with the economy showing some nascent signs of recovery beginning the second
half of the year, many companies are holding off on investments in new
technology. And, with it still [being] difficult for small businesses and
startups to obtain loans, there are few opportunities for tech firms to expand
their customer base.


Despite the potential for improved hiring in the new year, there are a lot
people competing for every opening
and many employers are very particular about what skills and experience they
want new workers to have. It is critical that technology workers continually
update their skills in order to remain competitive. It is necessary to maintain
a balance between having specialized skills and having the flexibility of a
generalist. It may also be necessary to expand one’s search to more industries
or geographically.


We’ll see a radically transforming marketplace – driven by surging demand in
emerging markets, growing impact from the cloud services model, an explosion of
mobile devices and applications, and the continuing rollout of higher-speed
networks. These transformational forces will drive key players to redefine
themselves and their offerings and will spark lots of M&A
activity.

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