Tech layoffs: The real numbers aren't so bad

From the constant drip of tech industry layoff announcements, you'd think huge numbers of IT workers would be out on the street. And certainly Cisco, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Oracle, SAP, Sun, and others have announced thousands of layoffs. But the numbers they report don't reflect actual people losing their jobs, so the real tally of tech workers who have found themselves jobless is significantly smaller than you'd think.

"I honestly do not think the tech sector is in as bad a shape as it might appear," says Frank Scavo, managing partner at Strativa, a technology management consulting firm. "IT executives have been quite conservative in their IT spending growth over the past several years. And when the economy took a downturn last year, they were pretty quick to make cuts."

[ Good IT news amid the gloom: Two firms project that 2009 will bring salary increases, InfoWorld reported last week that tech is still a safe career choice today, and despite the economy, certain IT skills remain in demand. ]

The grim initial picture
To be clear: The economy is bleak, and tech vendors are taking necessary action. "IT vendors are protecting themselves against what most now assume will be a weak market throughout much of 2009, with IT spending cutbacks spreading to other sectors like software applications and network infrastructure," explains IDC analyst Stephen Minton.

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