"You're fired!" - but as one door shuts, another opens

Recent announcements of departures at heavyweights including AOL, Lucent, Motorola and Nortel sit in the same statistical column. And this isn't to mention those exiting defunct or downtrodden dot-coms.

It isn't enough to say the investment environment for technology start-ups has become hostile overnight - the problem is widespread across all of the high-tech sector and complex.

Companies are being forced to shed workers to look as lean as they can to the investors, brokers and analysts scrutinising their every move. This isn't surprising, especially at the end of months when billions have been wiped off the market caps of firms around the world.

But whatever the reasons for the layoffs - and some observers are daring to whisper "recession" - these large layoffs shouldn't be taken as symptoms of a struggling sector.

Technology continues to fuel the wider economy. It is no millstone.

And what of those being "let go"? One silicon.com contributor and entrepreneur put it best: "They walk out of one office and across the street to another firm desperate for skilled staff. The skills crisis isn't easing."

Not everyone is fortunate when it comes to finding alternative employment. But layoffs in their thousands aren't necessarily the horror story the mainstream media brought us from other industries over the past 30 years.

For employers and employees in high-tech, it would seem every cloud has a silver lining.