(FORTUNE Magazine) – Despite ongoing layoffs in many sectors and an unyielding 6.7% national unemployment rate, new job growth is spurting at high-tech companies with fewer than 1,000 employees -- especially manufacturers of biotech products, computer software, and environmental equipment. CorpTech, a publisher and research company in Woburn, Massachusetts, surveyed 22,346 such businesses and found they have added 140,000 jobs since 1989, a 10.6% increase. In contrast, manufacturers nationwide shed 825,000 jobs, a 4.3% decline, as the chart shows. Beneficiaries of the boom include disenchanted veterans of corporate behemoths -- people laid off, worried about their employer's future, or simply ready for a change. Jeannie Vineyard, 37, falls into both of the two latter categories. She rose to manager in the engineering department in ten years with Prime Computer, the troubled manufacturer of minicomputers. In December she left to become director of development at four-year-old Cayman Systems. The Cambridge, Massachusetts, company provides clients like Motorola and Boeing with equipment that links users of Apple Macintosh computers with other networks. In 12 months Cayman has almost doubled its work force to 90. Last year's revenues were about $13 million. Says Vineyard: ''Now what I do has a direct impact on the bottom line.'' Her husband, Thomas Green, 37, incidentally, was laid off by Prime in September. He's a software engineer. Aries Technology, a Lowell, Massachusetts, software developer, has plucked a few of its 30 new hires from Wang, Data General, and Digital Equipment, which have laid off thousands in the recession. Aries now employs 97. Customers include Ford Motor, which contracted with the company in 1989 to provide customized software for designing pistons and other engine parts. Says CEO Larry McArthur, 49, an alum of IBM and smaller companies, who founded Aries seven years ago: ''If you can solve a strategic need, big companies will find money for you, even during bad times.'' Economist David Birch, CEO of Cognetics, a Cambridge research firm, predicts continued hiring by firms like Cayman and Aries. His news isn't as good for small businesses more dependent on the sluggish U.S. economy. Their job growth has slowed more than 50% since 1989. Says Birch: ''High-tech firms view the world as their market from day one. That's not the case for dry cleaners, real estate agents, and automobile dealers.'' - R.T.

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE CREDIT: FORTUNE CHART/SOURCES: CORPTECH; DEPARTMENT OF LABOR CAPTION: MINI-TECH IS HIRING FASTER