THE CHANGING ECONOMIC LANDSCAPE

In the past decade, Intel's billion-dollar computer chip plants have transformed sleepy little Hillsboro, Ore., previously a farm town, into a silicon forest of high-paying jobs, new subdivisions and rush-hour traffic jams. Hillsboro has seen its population grow from 45,000 to 68,000 in just the last three years. Now, having found that it's possible to have too much of a good thing, the locals are offering Intel a new set of tax breaks containing a new proviso: Don't create too many jobs.

As part of a $200 million tax-break package, local government officials will, in effect, fine Intel, the computer-chip giant, $1,000 for every manufacturing job created over a cap of 5,000. (Intel says this creates no problem, as they have no plans for more than 1,000 additional jobs anyway.) Intel has 11,000 employees in Washington County, Ore., at four plants. Intel's employees constitute the biggest single-company work force in the state and are the linchpin of an electronics industry that has helped give Oregon the nation's fastest-growing economy.

Other parts of the country have a different story to tell: A severe labor shortage. The Chamber of Commerce chief in Grand Forks, N.D., is excited about a new source of potential workers: Relocated Kosovo refugees. City officials hope to bring in about 30 refugee families over the next year. "They come in with a tremendous work ethic," says the chamber leader, citing a Bosnian who started an espresso bar in town.

In North Carolina, a store manager says he doesn't dare dismiss his clerks when they're tardy -- replacements are too hard to find. In the worst-hit areas, the Midwestern heartland and Carolina regions where jobless levels have fallen below 2 percent, the grinding worker shortage is a desperate obsession.

Around the country, companies are boosting benefits, paying bonuses to workers who bring in new hires and stepping up college recruiting. It is a good time to be a worker in America and a good time for our nation's economy.