CISCO SYSTEMS Company provides a positive for tech economy

New project is a bright spot for a region that has lost thousands of tech jobs.
BOXBORO, Mass. (AP) -- Computer giant Cisco Systems Inc.'s new research center opening here is sign of economic life the technology sector is grateful for.
Friday's opening of the three-building campus was delayed because recession-battered Cisco temporarily suspended construction in April 2001, and the three-building opening falls short of the original plan of 10 buildings.
Still, the center is seen as a positive for this town 25 miles west of Boston and the general area, which has shed thousands of technology jobs over the past three years.
"The good news is that the plans are going forward, as opposed to ending up on the scrap heap," said Chris Anderson, president of the Massachusetts High Technology Council, an industry group.
But no one is heralding the center as confirmation of a resurgence in one of the nation's biggest tech hotbeds -- San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco, the No. 1 maker of equipment that directs Internet traffic, is simply consolidating its employees in New England, not hiring new ones.
Mindful investing
It's representative of what's happening across the region: Some companies are investing again, but mindfully, and with an eye toward cost-savings and preparing to pounce when the market really recovers.
What they aren't doing much is hiring.
"That's very much in line with the way technology companies are looking at growth," Tony Badman, who founded a networking and support group for laid-off technology workers in the area, said of the Cisco complex. "They're being far more conservative about it. And they have to be."
In recent months, investors have regained confidence in technology, bidding up the Nasdaq index more than 20 percent since February. Badman says his group's members are having a somewhat easier time finding jobs.
But not much. The group, with its 2,000 members, is nowhere near its goal of rendering itself unnecessary. A recent survey reported that about half of the members have been looking for work at least nine months.
"Companies are looking at a little bit of steady growth, but the increase in the number of jobs required now is incredibly small in relation to the number of people who got laid off from the sector over the last few years," Badman said.
Many firms are investing in capital projects but not yet people, Anderson said. In nearby Chelmsford, Mass., Brooks Automation recently opened a new "cleanroom" manufacturing facility to make parts for electronics manufacturers. But that too consolidated local operations.
Cisco will use its new center to conduct research on its core routing and switching products, as well as in other areas such as security and voice technology.
Badman says that after the delay, he's simply glad to see Cisco moving forward.
"Hopefully, what it says is that [there will] be another percentage of jobs needed at that facility next year," he said.