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Technology employment has been a rare bright spot amidst the overall gloom of the past several months. No more.

"Firms in the United States technology sector announced planned job cuts totaling 84,217 in the first quarter, up 27 percent from 66,312 in the previous quarter. It was the largest quarterly jobcut tally for the sector since 2002, when 133,511 layoffs were announced in the fourth quarter, according to the report released Monday by global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc."

Here's the release.

More:

First-quarter tech sector job cuts were nearly five times higher than the 17,345 cuts announced during the same period a year ago. Job cuts in the sector, which includes telecommunications, computer and electronics firms, have increased in each of the last five quarters, growing by an average of 42 percent every three months.

Despite the increase, quarterly technology job cuts remain well below the levels reached during the dot.com collapse.