Correction: One of the persons in this story was incorrectly identified. He is Gus Faucher of Economy.com.

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SCOTT JAGOW: A lot of Americans who work at technology companies lost their jobs last quarter — the most in over a year, according to a new study. Ashley Milne-Tyte reports.

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ASHLEY MILNE-TYTE: Last quarter tech firms announced more than 50,000 job cuts, up from 29,000 the quarter before.

John Challenger's outplacement firm conducted the study. He says almost a third of the cuts are due to mergers and acquisitions, but as for the rest…

JOHN CHALLENGER: "Companies felt they had to cut their costs, their orders were down and they were scaling back."

He says a slowdown in the sector may be looming.

But Gus Faucher of Economy.com doesn't think these figures amount to much in the long run.

GUS FAUCHER: "Businesses are still sitting on a lot of cash, profit margins are at record highs, demand is still strong particularly from overseas. So we think businesses are going to continue to invest in tech equipment and we don't foresee much of a slowdown."

Faucher says the latest job cuts indicate only a temporary softening of the economy.

In New York, I'm Ashley Milne-Tyte for Marketplace.