A recent report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. found that tech companies planned to cut 174,629 jobs during 2009, accounting for a 12.3 percent increase from 2008 and the highest total since 2005. Those job losses account for 13.2 percent of the 1.3 million jobs lost across all industries last year.

"The recession's impact on the tech sector was inescapable," Chief Executive John Challenger said. "Even with the economy showing some nascent signs of recovery ... many companies are holding off on investments in new technology."

Electronics companies made the most job cuts, losing 65,300 workers, followed by computer employers with 65,261 job eliminations and telecommunications with 44,068 planned job cuts.

The majority of layoffs were announced during Q1 2009, with more than 84,000 planned job cuts announced during that time. More than 65,000 job cuts were announced on January 30 alone, including positions from Sprint Nextel and Texas Instruments, while Microsoft announced that same month that it planned to cut 5,000 jobs.

Fortunately, job cuts slowed to 34,000 by Q4 2009, which experts say could signal a decrease in job cuts this year. When tech companies do start to hire again, laid-off workers will have a much easier time finding a job among the competitive applicant pool if they're using outplacement services.

"It's going to be a slow climb," Challenger said. "Computer and electronics firms should be among the first to see the turnaround, as companies try to postpone hiring by achieving productivity gains through technology."

Another positive this year is the push for electronic health records, which should increase spending and jobs throughout the technology industry. Currently, only 44 percent of physicians use electronic records, and only 7 percent of them consider the systems fully functional, meaning IT professionals will be needed to implement new systems and improve existing systems.