Slowdown? What slowdown? Despite the massive layoffs and many high-profile bankruptcies, high-tech employment actually increased 4.6 percent in 2000, with manufacturing adding 18,000 jobs and computer software and services adding 145,900 new jobs, according to a report released Wednesday by the American Electronics Association.

Retailer Circuit City Stores Inc. said Tuesday its board approved a restructuring plan that would reposition it as a electronics and home office retailer exclusively, lowering earnings with one-time costs and cutting 1,000 jobs.

In the most dramatic sign yet that the U.S. economy is slowing, the unemployment rate unexpectedly climbed back to 4.1% in May as American businesses lost 116,000 jobs, the worst showing in nearly nine years. The Labor Department reported today that the nation's unemployment rate climbed by 0.2 percentage points from a 30-year-low of 3.9% in April. The increase returned the jobless rate to the same 4.1% level it had reached in March. Overall payrolls rose by 231,000 in May, but all the strength occurred in government hiring of 357,000 temporary workers to conduct the census. However, American businesses cut 116,000 jobs during the month, the first monthly decline since January 1996 and the biggest decline since November 1991.

Front-office employees will have to make fewer clicks to reach customer information and customer-relationship management (CRM) tools with Onyx Software Corp.'s newest version of its Onyx Employee Portal. Employee Portal, which is being rolled out next week, provides data access through a Web browser, much like Onyx's portals for customers and partners. But unlike those products, Employee Portal also features a host of customer relationship-management tools intended to help front-office personnel do their jobs. Employee Portal lets users manage account information, track sales opportunities, create customer-service queues, and analyze customer data for market

Winn-Dixie Stores, a grocery chain in the southeastern USA, says it will fire 11,000 workers and close 114 unprofitable stores to help fend off fast-growing rivals such as Wal-Mart Stores. The sixth-largest U.S. grocer said it will also close a warehouse and two plants, consolidate offices and remodel 600 supermarkets. The moves, expected to save $245 million a year, will result in charges of $336 million. The chain, which has 1,189 stores, has been losing shoppers as Wal-Mart, Publix Super Markets and other grocers expand. Its shares have lost half their value in the past year.