Oct. 25--Disenchanted with the job prospects, Aberdeen resident Ken Stone, laid off from his software engineering job in 2002, decided to become a disc jockey, his long-time hobby.

Stone, who was laid off from Tellium Inc., started DJ Ken Stone.com in 2006 after working part-time jobs, including one as a consultant for a Web development company and another in information technology at Rutgers University. It gave him some stability and helped reduce his family's child-care costs.

"I work for myself, so when the economy goes down, I am not going to get laid off," Stone said. "It just doesn't seem like any place right now is a long-term thing that you can say, "I am going to do this and it will be my job until I retire.' "

The Shore is at an economic crossroads. The technology industry that fueled innovation and economic growth during the 1990s slowly disappeared during the past decade, leaving highly skilled workers such as Stone with few opportunities to match their previous salaries.

Engineers have become DJs. Software developers have become teachers. And with Fort Monmouth scheduled to close in two years, experts worry the trend will only continue.

It has put the Shore's once enviable reputation as a center for high-tech innovation in jeopardy and has led some observers to say the region needs to create an economic development plan or risk falling further behind.

"I have not seen an economic development plan for the region," said Frederick Kelly, dean of Monmouth University's School of Business Administration in West Long Branch. "I don't see anything coming that has real direction. I see all sorts of piecemeal discussions. But I don't see that coming."

Technology center

The Shore had a reputation as one of the country's technology centers, home to Bell Labs in Holmdel, AT&T in Middletown and Fort Monmouth.

By the late 1990s, those companies were creating hundreds of jobs. Former employees ventured on their own to create start-ups. People started to call the region the "Silicon Parkway" looking to put it on par with Silicon Valley.

The technology bubble, however, burst in early 2001. As the Shore's high-tech industry crumbled around him in 2002, Millstone Township resident and long-time engineer James Ringo was laid off from his job as an operations test manager at Tellium in Oceanport.

"I had always been employable," said Ringo. "I had almost not even looked for jobs. People came to me and said, "We know who you are, we know what you do, we just want to know when you can start.' "

As he searched for another job, employers' reactions had changed; thousands of engineers were vying for jobs.