Despite a surge in tech-sector downsizing in the second half of 2011, the number of job cuts announced by these firms dropped last year to the lowest level ever recorded in tracking going back to 1997, according to the latest report on technology sector job cuts released today by global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. Technology companies, including those in the computer, electronics and telecommunications industries, announced a total of 37,038 planned job cuts in 2011, down 21 percent from 46,825 in 2010. The year-end total was down 79 percent from the recent peak of 174,629 recorded at the height of the Great Recession in 2009, Challenger said in a news release.