US tech sector job cuts hit 5-year high (approximately 187K in 2008, up 167% in second half of year)

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Nearly 187,000 workers in the US technology sector lost their jobs last year, the highest number in five years, consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said Thursday.

Challenger said telecommunications, computer and electronics firms slashed 186,955 jobs in 2008, 74.2 percent more than the 107,295 jobs lost in 2007 and the most since the 228,325 tech job cuts of 2003.

It said the pace of job cuts in the sector more than doubled in the second half of the year as the economy deteriorated.

"The pace of job cutting by tech-sector firms spiked 167 percent in the second half of 2008 and, if January is any indication, can be expected to remain heavy well into 2009," the firm said.

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_tech_sector_job_cuts_hit_five_ye_01292009.html

[OhioChick]

1. I know I'll be fucked in a week or two.

:scared:

[ChromeFoundry]

2. enough already! (sigh)

:grr:

[IDemo]

3. I wonder if contractors are included in that figure?

Lost my job of 8-½ years last Friday.

[ChromeFoundry]

4. Sorry to hear about your job... that really sucks.

[IDemo]

6. I've got a few DU'ers helping me on my resumé

I had no idea how terrible it was. :blush:

[OhioChick]

5. I feel your pain.

I hope you find something soon. :hug:

[IDemo]

9. Thanks, OC

Something will pop up, I'm sure. But it's almost comically absurd, the lack of tech work around these parts.
HP and Micron are shipping work overseas as rapidly as possible, and there isn't much else to pick from here.

[OhioChick]

10. I've been sending resumes out for months

And don't even get a call back. Tech work here in Ohio is drying up and it's scaring the hell out of me. It's not so much that they're holding back on IT spending, but shipping the jobs like crazy overseas. I was recently told that another round of layoffs were coming and I'd likely be included in them. :(

I sit here wondering when all those loopholes will be closed and corps penalized, as promised to us.

[IDemo]

16. What field are you in? IT, manufacturing..?

Any chance of making a jump to another area, such as medical/dental, etc.? I have thought about giving this a try, but being over 50 adds to the challenge.

[OhioChick]

18. IT...Software Developer

I don't have the $$$$ to go back to school.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

7. Sending good thoughts, positive vibes...

:patriot:

[IDemo]

11. Thank you for those kind words, Amerigo

[Amerigo Vespucci]

12. I also received my B.A. in English and am a former H.R. Manager...

...so if I can be of any assistance...if you just want to bounce a strategy off of me, whatever...please do not hesitate to PM me.

We're all in this together.

:patriot:

[IDemo]

14. I don't know if I have anything like a strategy, per se

My options are somewhat limited to electronics tech work or light VB programming, neither of which are in big demand now.
I have actually considered trying to pursue a two year program in a medical or dental field, both of which still seem to
have a great deal of demand. I've passed the mid century mark, so it is going to be interesting in any case.

[Azlady]

13. Hey there IDemo - man sorry to hear about your job - did

they at least give you an okay package?

[IDemo]

15. No package, it was a long term contract

We were in a sort of "perma-temp" arrangement. I had paid vacation time and health benefits, but both were
taken away at the end of the year. I was still happy to just have a job, until this.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

8. Axe falls at the GF's office next week

She knows she is safe because she tried to take the voluntary severance package and was turned down. She is furious about the cuts coming to her team, to add insult to injury she is stuck in Texas these days babysitting the incompetent subcontractor in Texas taking her colleagues jobs.

The prototype boards used to be made in Taiwan and shipped bare to California, with just basic components like resistors, capacitors and chip sockets where they were assembled by hand by the engineers who designed them who were down the hall from the firmware developers. Now they just send the designs and firmware to Texas and wait in horror to see what electronic abortion scrapings FedEx delivers a few weeks later.

I really suspect she is just going to quit, she is already driving herself crazy with survivors guilt.

[bkkyosemite]

17. It all seems strange to me that everyone (companies) are bailing out on their workers

I almost feel that this is a much bigger picture and we are not being told the truth. It's like someone above our Administration in D.C. is up to making the people a slave class of doing whatever they say as we become more desparate...Something smells here...