LONDON -- While European technology companies aren't announcing layoffs on anything like the scale of their U.S. counterparts, there are a few early signs that Europe's buoyant high-tech job market could begin to slow.

Recruitment agencies say that demand for skilled technology staff is still very strong, but the weakening U.S. economy has created an element of uncertainty.

"There is a little bit of nervousness around at the moment," said Carole Hepburn, commercial director at Computer People, a pan-European recruitment agency owned by Adecco SA of Switzerland. Ms. Hepburn said that U.S. tech companies in Europe are starting to hold off from recruiting. "It is the first time we have sensed it. We haven't seen it in the figures yet, but it would take a few months to come through," she added. Computer People is currently filling 50% more vacancies than this time last year.

So far, high-tech job cuts in Europe have been on a modest scale compared with the U.S. Bookham Technology PLC, a U.K.-based maker of fiber-optic components, said earlier this month that it may cut 150 jobs or 15% of its work force. The cuts are in response to Canadian company Nortel Networks Corp.'s decision to reduce orders for Bookham's Mini-DIL receivers, which are used in optical networks to direct digital data.

Bookham's announcement came hard on the heels of news from British computer company Psion PLC that it will cut its work force by approximately 100 employees. Psion blamed the cuts on the termination of a project to build a hand-held computer with a built-in mobile phone.

In November, struggling French technology firm Groupe Bull SA announced another round of job cuts that will see its headcount fall by 1,800, or 10% of its work force over 18 months.

Some technology recruitment consultants in the U.K. said it could be some time before the U.S. economic slowdown has a noticeable impact on the job market here. "A lot of these companies are not fully staffed up, so even if they are worried about the economy, they are still recruiting," says Geoffrey King, managing director of Cambridge Recruitment Consultants of Cambridge, England. For example, Mr. King said that in Europe there is still a chronic shortage of people with skills in designing semiconductors. "Even though [mobile] handset makers are cutting back, they will work fiendishly hard to keep these people," he added.

Mr. King said that even if technology companies stop recruiting, companies in other sectors will snap up skilled staff. His firm is currently recruiting 800 information-technology staff for the aerospace industry.