Is the reign of the brain over?

• Position: Triangle

After days of speculation about impending layoffs at IBM Corp.'s campus in Research Triangle Park, the company put out some numbers: 334 of its roughly 10,000 workers there will be cut loose by the end of this month. It would be easy to blame the economy. The state jobless rate hit 10.7% in February, and with other companies downsizing, why should an information-technology research center be different?

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But IBM spokesman Doug Shelton says the change is part of a routine realignment of skills and resources, not a response to the poor economy. "Our clients' needs change over time, so it is a way of making sure that we have the right skills and the right resources in the right places to match what those clients' needs are--now and into the future."

That might be even worse news for a state economy that has shifted from manufacturing to knowledge-based jobs such as those provided by Armonk, N.Y-based IBM. Recession-related cuts would hold out hope that positions will be added when things pick up. But The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources, says the company is laying off 5,000 U.S. employees and transferring many of those jobs to India.

If so, it's reminiscent of what's been happening to North Carolina manufacturing as companies try to lower their costs. From 1990 to the end of last year, manufacturing employment fell 39% to 491,400 in...