December's job numbers are in, and there's good news for those in the tech field. Although 85,000 jobs were lost last month across the broad economy, about 5,200 tech jobs were added, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor and analyzed by InformationWeek.

The number of workers employed in the IT industry was down slightly compared to the previous year, but it's still an indication that the tech sector weathered the recession better than many industries hit by the downturn. Tech employment increased to 3.87 million positions in December, up slightly from 3.86 million jobs in November.

The biggest gains were seen in the system design and consulting categories. Employment in the former rose .02 percent, according to InformationWeek. Hardest hit was tech manufacturing. Employment in computer and computer-related products manufacturing fell 10 percent month-to-month, to 1.2 million jobs.

Tech employment last year was off by 3 percent, hardly a drop in the bucket if you compare it to other sectors. Employment in the construction sector fell 7.4 percent last year, while financial services  was off 4 percent, the data showed.

Nevertheless, there were several negatives in the field. U.S.-based tech firms including IBM, shed jobs in the United States while it increases its workforce in India, China and other outsourcing markets.

We're hoping to report a bigger rebound in the next few months.

For more on IT job hiring:
- see this InformationWeek.com article

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