Employment at electronics firms dropped 2.3%.

The decline in the number of jobs came during the first nine months of 1985, the American Electronics Assn. reported. An estimated 2.53 million people were employed in the electronics industry domestically in September, down 60,000 from the record level at the end of 1984, the AEA said. One area that bucked the trend was the software and programming sector, in which employment was up 13.4% during the nine-month period, highlighted by an increase of 24,000 jobs.