Silicon Valley's No Place To Find A Job; Many Workers Search Years; Skilled techies often forced to choose to keep looking, change careers or relocate.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)

Publication: Investor's Business Daily

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COPYRIGHT 2004 Investor's Business Daily, Inc.

Byline: NICK TURNER

When the dot-com collapse hit Silicon Valley, the area's tech workers began a slide that few ever thought would be so long and hard.

Many went through four of the five stages of grief, beginning with denial. Now, more than four years later, the valley's workers are still inching toward the fifth stage: acceptance.

That means admitting that the boom times aren't coming back -- at least not anytime soon. In some cases, it means moving out of the area or finding a new career.

Those who don't adapt risk long-term unemployment. Some of the highly qualified tech workers that thrived during the dot-com boom have been out of work for one, two -- even three years. They're unwilling, or unable, to take a lower-paying job.

"It's a problem of too many people in one place," said John Challenger, chief executive of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement firm. "People are unwilling to move to where the jobs are. They're not open to other industries."

The U.S. tech industry slashed 54,701 jobs...

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