Boston Technology Jobs with IDG Cut

Posted on February 5, 2009

One technology company has cut a small number of Boston technology jobs.

International Data Group, a technology publishing company, recently announced that it had laid off a small percentage of workers in Massachusetts, but did not disclose exactly how many jobs were cut. The cuts came from CXO Media Inc. and Network World Inc., two of IDG’s business units. According to an article by The Boston Globe, the company had to make cuts because of the current recession.

“We’re continuing to adjust our expense levels to reflect the business conditions,” IDG Spokesman Howard Sholkin said in the article.

IDG previously announced that it had made another round of job cuts during November. However, the company has more than 13,000 tech employees globally, including 850 throughout Massachusetts. The company is best known for publishing Computerworld and PC World magazines. IDG reported $3.2 billion in revenue during the last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, 2008, an increase of about 6 percent from 2007.

The job cuts will only add to Boston’s declining information industry. The Boston-Cambridge-Quincy area’s information industry employed 74,800 workers during December 2008, according to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is up from 74,700 workers during November 2008, but a 1.3 percent decrease from last year.

Although it was one of the only areas posting job gains during the last half of 2008, Boston is now seeing its economy begin to decline as well. The city saw its unemployment rate jump from 5 percent during November to 5.8 percent during December. Boston had a total non-farm employment of 2,497,700 workers during December, down from 2,507,100 workers during November and a .8 percent decrease from last year.