Bad news for anyone looking for a job in the tech sector: job postings for technical positions dropped over 40 percent compared to figures gathered this time last year thanks to the credit crunch.

With many companies looking to fire, rather than hire, it's a bad time to be looking for work – especially if you're a highly-paid technical bod. According to figures from job site Dice.com – via CNet – the number of technical jobs listed at the start of March 2009 was just 54,301. This figure contrasts with the 91,080 jobs the site was listing back in March 2008.

It's not just year-on-year figures that are looking poor, either: the Dice Report shows that job listings have dropped 5.3 percent in a single month between February and March.

Full time posts are the hardest hit, with a drop of 44.2 percent year-on-year as companies choose to hire temporary staff where needed rather than go to the risk of a permanent member who might need to be laid off if the financial markets don't show signs of improvement. Temporary and contract posts aren't immune to the dip, however, with a drop of 35.6 percent year-on-year.

These figures will come as sad reading to anyone who hopes for a job in the tech sector, but especially for those who have recently been laid off. With industry giants including Google, Microsoft, and Sony all reducing headcount it's a bad time to be looking for work. The news is likely to get worse before it gets better, too, with consumer spending in the tech sector continuing to slow.

Any readers looking for jobs in an ever-shrinking tech sector, or has everyone managed to find a safe place to ride out the credit crunch? Share your thoughts over in the forums.