After falling 21 percent in 2015, job cuts announced by employers in the U.S. technology sector increased by the same amount in 2016, according to a new analysis of layoff data by global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.
Employers in the technology sector, which encompasses computer, electronic and telecommunications firms, announced 96,017 planned job cuts in 2016. That was up 21 percent from a 2015 total of 79,315.
Computer firms announced 66,821 job cuts last year, 7 percent more than the 62,191 announced in 2015. The increase was due primarily to thousands of cuts announced by Dell Technologies in its $63 billion acquisition of EMC.