The steady trickle of job cuts has become something of a grim fascination for me in recent weeks. The numbers are astronomical: 16,000 unlucky folk are staring down the barrel at IBM, while another 5,000 are updating their CVs at Microsoft. Thankfully though, I’m not one to dwell on the merely depressing when outright despair can be found just around the corner. To that end I decided to go looking for the big number waiting at the end of this maudlin rainbow.

Armed with a calculator, Google and fifteen minutes of free time I added up all the recent job cuts. The number is staggering. If you’ve already had a particularly bad day or are considering taking a bath with your toaster, I suggest you look away now. In my completely unscientific estimation, the tech industry has promised to shed 83,650 jobs [running total below the cut]. That’s basically the population of the Isle of Man, and 3,000 more than the den of inequity that is Old Trafford.

Now bear in mind, most of the announced job cuts come with an “up to” caveat. There’s also a couple in there that are speculation at this point, though they’re well-informed speculation. Anyway I’ve listed below my names and figures for your viewing displeasure. Before you take a look though, can I suggest you put down that bread knife.

Sun 1,300 (6,000 planned)
Sprint 8,000
Philips 6,000
IBM 16,000 (rumoured)
Microsoft 5,000
Sony 16,000 (rumoured)
Bose 1,000
AMD 1,600
Creative 2,700
Logitech 600
At&T 12,000
Pioneer 2,000
Motorola 3,000
Intel 6,000

Sony Ericsson 2,450

HP/EDS 3,378
BT Global Services 10,000

NEC 20,000
Hitchai 7,000
Panasonic 20,000

With NEC, Hitachi and Panasonic joining the bad news band, our total has raced up to a rather alarming 144,028 – which means the population of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has either been sacked, or is on the verge. With a population of around 180,000 Samoa’s officially sweating, according to Wikipedia’s ever handy list. To keep the stadium analogy motoring along I’ll point you towards India’s Salt Lake stadium, which is the second largest in the world with 120,000 seats.

The largest is Rungrado May Day Stadium in North Korea, with 150,000. I can’t see it holding out long, mind.

If you’ve any more to add, or corrections to add, just let me know and I’ll keep updating the figure, much like they do with the survivors board in Battlestar Galactica.