That's still a huge loss. Now imagine if the tech jobs fell by 26%. You won't be saying it "only" fell by 26%.

Yes, and I don't mean to downplay the scale of that human loss. Only to point out that the numbers (as stated) were misleading.

Accuracy is actually MOST important when strong feelings are involved. If we're talking about what time to eat lunch 'noonish' is good enough. If we're talking about about how many people died in a tragedy exact numbers help prevent misinformation, hyperbole, and panic from driving everyone into a frenzy.