Mar. 28--It's official: Global technology giant IBM is laying off 334 workers at its massive Research Triangle Park campus -- the latest in a series of job cuts.

The company ended days of speculation by specifying, in a letter sent to the state Department of Commerce, the number of local job cuts.

A union seeking to organize the company's workers, Alliance@IBM, calculates that IBM cut 3,713 employees nationwide, involving several different business units, on Thursday and Friday. Those numbers are based on reports provided by IBM workers.

Lee Conrad, national coordinator of Alliance@IBM, said he expects the national total to rise as additional reports trickle in.

IBM's RTP site employed 11,000 before layoffs in recent months trimmed its ranks. The site's current staffing total is not clear.

IBM didn't update the state on its workforce total, nor could company officials be reached for comment Friday.

The laid-off IBMers face a difficult job market. On Friday, the state unemployment rate for February jumped to 10.7 percent, the highest jobless rate on record.

The market for information technology workers is rocky. The number of IT job openings in North Carolina declined 75 percent in February compared with a year earlier, according the N.C. Technology Association.

Even though fewer companies are hiring fewer IT workers, "there are certainly opportunities out there," said Gary Greene, president of Greene Resources, a Raleigh-based recruiting firm. Positions that are in demand, he said, include desktop support, network administrators, network engineers and software engineers.

Middle managers who have lost their jobs face an especially tough time, because those positions are few and far between, Greene said.

More than a dozen local IT companies have had major layoffs in recent months, including name-brand companies such as Lenovo, Nortel Networks and Sony Ericsson.

"You really have to step up your game right now to shine among the other candidates who are looking for jobs," said Ashley Powell, account manager at The Select Group, a recruiting firm based in Raleigh.

"It's a great time to hire right now, if you can," she added.

Will some IBM workers who have lost their jobs start their own companies? "I think there could be a few entrepreneurs that come out of this, but my guess is it will be a handful," said Ben Brooks of Raleigh venture capital firm Southern Capitol Ventures.

Employees at a giant company such as IBM have the skills but may lack the mindset needed to be an entrepreneur, Brooks said.