Tech

Tech job cuts to soar in 2014: Report

Victor J. Blue | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Tech companies will be slashing more jobs this year than they did last year, according to a report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

During the first half of the year, tech employers said they would be cutting 48,402 jobs compared with 28,883 jobs during the same time period last year, according to a mid-year report published Monday by the recruiting firm. That's a 68 percent increase from a year ago. And that doesn't even include Microsoft's recent announcement to layoff 14 percent of its workforce.

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Tech firms with most payroll cuts for first half of the year

Date Company Cuts
5/24/2014Hewlett-Packard co.16,000
1/20/2014Intel Corp.5,350
2/27/2014Maximus Inc. (Affordable
Care Act call center)
1,600
5/19/2014LivingSocial1,500
1/23/2014Texas Instruments Inc.1,100
3/1/2014Verizon Wireless Irvine1,092
5/30/2014Dell Inc. (India plant)1,000
1/29/2014EMC Corp.1,000
4/9/2014Intel (Costa Rica plant)1,000
2/27/2014Sony Electronics1,000
2/13/2014Verizon call center600
1/26/2014Center Partners call center500
2/28/2014Cox Communications (call centers)500

Source: Source: Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

At this pace, job cuts in the tech sector this year will likely be the highest since 2009, when tech job cuts reached 174,629, according to the report. Tech employers slashed the most jobs in 2001 with 695,581 payrolls cut, according to the firm.

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Computer firms announced the most layoffs during the first half of the year, with 30,002 jobs being cut. The telecommunications industry announced 5,214 job cuts and the electronics industry set to downsize by 5,356 jobs.

The news of the spike in tech layoffs comes ahead of the July payrolls report to be released Friday.

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By CNBC's Cadie Thompson. Follow her on Twitter @CadieThompson.