Plugging the dotcom drain

More news on the dotcom front: Some 32 percent of US businesses have lost an employee to an Internet company. BrilliantPeople.com, a recruiting Web site, surveyed more than 3,400 executives and found that New England leads the dotcom exodus. More than half of the companies in that region reported losing employees to the Internet sector. Only 13 percent of respondents in the south central US said an employee had gone the dotcom route.

"Those companies in New England, the Mid-Atlantic states, and the West are the hardest hit by employees leaving for dotcoms because these are the epicenters of the Internet industry," says Allen Salikof, president and CEO at Management Recruiters International. "Those employees coming from telecom and IT companies have the skills that are in the greatest demand by the dotcom world and are more likely to be lured away."

But experts say that with venture capitalists tightening their fists around capital until dotcoms show a profit, the exodus could be slowing.

To stem the tide of employees leaving, companies are starting to offer stock in order to keep workers. A few examples:

*Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plans to give 2 million shares of stock to 8,000 junior analysts who were employed as of November.

*Merrill Lynch & Co. will soon start providing employees more stock and investment opportunities.

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