Companies jettison jobs as blush fades from boom.

• Position: High - Tech

Job churn is nothing new at many of the state's high-tech companies. But for much of the '90s, the talent called the shots. If a programmer left a company, someone else was typically offering him -- and, yes, they are mostly hims -- more money or stock options or better snacks in the break room. Sometimes all three.

But if green was unquestionably the color of high tech in the '90s, pink -- as in the slips they hand you on the way to the door -- was its hue in 2001. Canada-based Nortel Networks lopped off 2,500 of the 7,500 jobs at its operation in Research Triangle Park. In July, Alcatel, the French telecommunications company, announced it was cutting 700 jobs, nearly half of its 1,450 payroll in Raleigh. San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco Systems laid off 292 of its 3,300 in RTP. Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM, which employs 17,000 in North Carolina, dribbled out tiny job cuts throughout the year -- about 225 over three rounds of layoffs.

While it may be no comfort to those who lost their jobs, North Carolina got off easy, compared with other places. Nortel slashed nearly 50% of its workers worldwide but cut only a third of those here. Cisco clipped 10% off its Tar Heel work force -- but sliced 16% off company-wide. North Carolina took a smaller hit because of the high level of its technical talent, Cisco spokesman Joe Freddoso says. Cisco's RTP-based divisions, for example, include worldwide technical assistance and mobile Internet access.

Tech troubles and a slumping stock market also mean many venture capitalists aren't prospecting for new investments and funneling money into start-ups -- they're too busy helping the troubled companies that they've already invested in. "Until we know our existing deals are out of the woods, we will continue to be cautious," says Dave Blivin, managing director of Southeast Interactive Technology Funds, a Morrisville VC firm with most of its investments in North Carolina.

Blivin predicts the shortage of venture money will continue for at least the first half of this year. "You're still going to see an environment where companies have to be very frugal with their capital and focus mainly on staying even with where they are, not losing ground, and then hoping to build once things start loosening up."

Southeast invested about $20 million in 2001, all in companies in which it already had a stake. In May, for example, it led a group of investors in reviving Durham-based KOZ.com by buying its assets out of bankruptcy and...