Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told us in September 2009 that the recession was “very likely over.” Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, told CBS News on 01-30-2010 “The Great Recession is over.“ UPS CEO Scott Davis told the Atlanta Constitution Journal on 02-03-2010 that the recession is over. So to celebrate UPS is going to cut 1,800 positions.
Andrew Bartels, a Forrester vice president, and principal analyst declared the tech recession over on 01-12-10. Despite these prognostications by pundits and politicians, global tech layoffs have soared to over 613,00 since the bottom fell out of the world economy in October 2008. Layoffs in January 2010 reached nearly 37,000, a monthly magnitude total not seen since May 2009. The telecom firms lead the layoff count in January 2010 with Verizon (VZ), Sprint (S), and AT&T (T) accounting for nearly 65% of this month’s announced layoffs.
The overall trend for the last 8 months has been upwards, hardly an indicator that the recession is over.
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.