ChannelWeb Insider has been tracking which technology companies have given layoff notices. According to the site, technology firms have eliminated at least 205,000 positions since October 2008.
This does not include small and mid-sized technology firms and the VAR community.
- January 2009 has been the most brutal for tech layoffs with at least 124,320 positions eliminated.
- October 2008 with 46,281 positions eliminated.
- November 2008 saw 21,433 workers sacked by technology companies.
- December 2008 The holiday spirit held sway in when most companies except ATT minimized layoffs. ATT eliminated 12,000 of the 13,095 positions eliminated in the last month of 2008.
Layoff rogue’s gallery
Among the firms in the rogue’s gallery of layoffs between October 2008 and January 2009 are:
- Circuit City with 37,400 layoffs
- HP with 24,600 layoffs
- NEC with 20,000 layoffs
- ATT with 12,000 layoffs
- Dell with 8,900 layoffs
- Sprint/Nextel with 8,000 layoffs
- Hitachi with 7,000 layoffs
- Intel with 6,000 layoffs
- Philips with 6,000 layoffs
- Google with 5,100 layoffs
We can hope that CEOs with their multi-million dollar salaries such as HP’s Mark Hurd who made over $42.5 million in 2008 or Sprint/Nextel’s Gary D. Forsee who made over $40 million or ATT’s Randall Stephenson who made over $21.9 million in 2007 actually understand their actions disrupt the lives of over a quarter of million real families when they eliminate jobs.
Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.