LOS ANGELES -- Displaced dot-com employees and nervous Hollywood technicians have found an unlikely shelter from the economic downturn: the porn industry.

Executives at leading adult-entertainment companies report a surge of résumés and telephone inquiries from disillusioned techies, as well as mainstream camera operators, grips and lighting experts who are worried about strikes by Hollywood writers and actors.

The porn companies, many of which produce X-rated videos and popular erotic Web sites from San Fernando Valley industrial parks, have not been hit by the faltering economy. Porn is one of the few profitable enterprises on the Internet.

Just how many dot-com refugees are heading to porn-related sites is unclear, but a check of some of the larger companies indicated that most are actively hiring technicians from the mainstream Internet world.

``We're getting all sorts of calls from technology head-hunters asking if we have openings,'' said Bert Manzari, chief executive of DHD Media in nearby Santa Monica, an online adult-entertainment company. ``They're asking to place everything from database administrators to programmers to executives.

``It's funny, because a year ago, we couldn't get anyone to call us back,'' he said.

Industry watchers in technology and entertainment centers throughout the United States say the migration is increasing as the porn industry expands. Executives in the recession-proof adult-entertainment field say the calls and résumés underscore the mainstreaming of porn into American corporate life.

``We get bombarded with calls all the time,'' said Jimmy Flynt II, director of marketing and public relations for Hustler, founded by his uncle Larry. ``The sex industry really isn't affected by the markets. Sex always sells.''

For film crews, that translates into a short-term solution for a short-term problem. For the tech-savvy, adult-entertainment can be a permanent oasis of financial stability.

E-commerce sex Web sites blossomed from 230 in 1997, to 1,100 sites in 2000, according to American Demographics Magazine, citing a report from sextracker.com. Web sites offering free sex content jumped from more than 22,000 to nearly 280,300 during the same period.

Porn is becoming increasingly acceptable, especially among young professionals. ``At least I know my paycheck isn't going to bounce,'' said Jon, 25, who asked that his last name be withheld. He jumped to take a Web designer job at Vivid Entertainment Group after he was laid off last winter from Los Angeles music start-up ArtistDirect.

Over the past 16 months, more than 75,500 Internet workers lost their jobs, according to research by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago-based employee outplacement firm.

``Right now, it's hard to find any e-commerce plays that seem to be working. Sex works,'' President John A. Challenger said.

Flynt said Hustler will be looking to dispossessed dot-com types to beef up its Internet enterprise, a ``cash cow'' that will be expanded from 60 to 75 employees in the next six months.

``We'll expect them to play a big role because we'll be looking for the highest quality people,'' Flynt said.

Wicked Interactive, based in the Chatsworth area of Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, interviewed eight programmers who lost their jobs after the online venture eToys of Santa Monica went out of business last month. It hired one. Wicked is looking for high-end programmers to roll out a new porn database for its Internet site.

Vivid Entertainment Group, which has expanded its online team in the past few months, says that 35 percent of its technical staff hails from the dot-com world. And officials with Playboy.com, the New York-based Internet subsidiary of the Chicago-based publishing company, say that ``almost all'' of its technical employees have worked at traditional dot-coms.

For many Hollywood veterans, working in porn is just another day on the set. An increasing number of mainstream movie technicians are calling adult-entertainment companies to line up work if Hollywood actors and screenwriters go on strike July 1.

``People have called and said, `I've been a camera operator for 15 years and we think there's going to be a strike and I'd be interested in shooting camera for one of your productions,' '' said Marci Hirsch, production director for Vivid, which makes as many as six videos a month.

``I'm not sure they really realize what the pay is,'' she said. ``We have no union . . .  but I guess if you don't have a job, it really doesn't matter.''

Union leaders said they hadn't heard if members had been contacting porn shops.

``It doesn't sound bad to me,'' joked Norm Glasser, business agent for Hollywood electricians, Local 728 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Turning serious, he added: ``If there's a strike, everybody's on their own, more or less. . . .  What people do as individuals, we have no control over.''

At Sin City Entertainment in Chatsworth, there's been a veritable casting call of people inquiring about jobs, said spokesman Jeff Wozniak. ``They're trying to line things up now in case there is a strike,'' he said.

So far, the company has been contacted by a few mainstream film editors, grips, one director of photography and ``several B-movie actors and actresses looking for non-sexual roles.''

The production house releases six to eight adult films a month ranging from $100,000 high-concept films with plots to those featuring ``wall-to-wall'' intercourse with little or no dialogue.

``If we were to use B-movie actors and actresses, it would be a big-budget thing where we would need somebody in a room or at party . . .  or a secondary story line, where we'd need someone to actually act,'' Wozniak said.