But, in running it now for the second half of January, the keyword that popped to the top was: Layoffs And this is definitely a sign of the times. When I drill down on that term, you can see why with posts like: Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals Lops A Third Of Company THQ Lays Off 100 Employees, Closes San Diego Office Citrix Cuts 10 Percent; Santa Barbara Hit And it's also interesting to see what geographies are being associated with "Layoffs" more often than others: Layoffs Woodland Hills Layoffs San Diego Layoffs Santa Monica Layoffs Los Angeles I guess

For our Insights & Opinions section today, Cathy Ashbaugh, President of Pacific Shore Resources, a local recruiting firm, gives some well timed advice on how to handle a layoff: As The stock market is showing progress these past few weeks, local start-ups are beginning to see an increase in VC funding and SoCal technology firms are hiring. Chances are that someone you know--friend, As we enter into the second quarter of 2009 we are beginning to see small signs of hope and improvement in the economy.

The technology industry’s panicked rush to lay off employees, in fear of impact from the economy, is starting to hit Southern California. The latest: Veoh - 20 employees, or approximately 18-20 percent of its staff. THQ - 250 employees, 17 percent.

But, for some reason, a number of small, private SoCal firms are actually quite upbeat, including MaintenanceNet - reporting Q4 growth ; Central Desktop with "a record quarter"; Skweezer saying the fourth quarter bumped it to profitability ; mobileStorm also reporting a strong quarter ; not to mention iRise , which says the bad economy is actually driving the firm's growth . For In our Friday Southern California technology news roundup: The The economy continues to be in the news this week, as Broadcom is cutting 200 employees as it sees a glum Q1. But,

Job hiring plans were also better, with only a slim number of firms--3.06% expecting possible layoffs, with 85 percent of firms looking to hire workers. Local technology executives seem to be optimistic going into the new year, believing the worst of the economic decline has passed, and are also looking at hiring this year, according to the latest socalTECH.com Industry Survey . The non-scientific survey was a shift from the fairly negative outlook from last year's survey.

No bonuses, no promotions, layoffs, and nobody hiring. And SoCal successfully beat most of the United States in unemployment claims, by several percentage points, attaching painful and empirical fact to the grim situation. But For our Insights and Opinions section today, we have an editorial by John Savageau, President of Pacific-Tier Communications, who asks companies in Southern California to put local talent back to work. 2009 2009 was a horrible year for job seekers, and even those holding on to existing jobs.

This is a sister list to SoCal Networking Event Organizations and focuses on any other Job Search or Business Networking opportunities. Please let me know if know of others to add, or if you have any feedback. Professional Associations, Groups, Societies & Events Directories: See my details, descriptions and commentary on SoCal Networking Event Organizations . www.weddles.com/associations A nation-wide directory, categorized by industry/job. networkingeventfinders.com A nation-wide directory, broken down by state then region. View as listing or calendar.

This is a sister list to SoCal Networking Event Organizations and focuses on any other Job Search or Business Networking opportunities. Please let me know if know of others to add, or if you have any feedback. Professional Associations, Groups, Societies & Events Directories: See my details, descriptions and commentary on SoCal Networking Event Organizations . www.weddles.com/associations A nation-wide directory, categorized by industry/job. networkingeventfinders.com A nation-wide directory, broken down by state then region. View as listing or calendar.

This is a sister list to SoCal Networking Event Organizations and focuses on Networking and Social Media Job Search Webinars, Teleconferences and Podcasts. Frequency: Recurring Cost: Free Review: None Added 9/18/09 by Todd Zebert Name: Layoff Bounce Back - Sharon Rich Sites: [link] Self-description: "unemployed? Frequency: "the first monday of every month, 9am sharp (PST) as long as the massive layoffs Please let me know if know of others to add, or if you have any feedback. Check your Alma Mater's website - I know USC has a number of job search webinars and

This is a sister list to SoCal Networking Event Organizations and focuses on Networking and Social Media Job Search Webinars, Teleconferences and Podcasts. Frequency: Recurring Cost: Free Review: None Added 9/18/09 by Todd Zebert Name: Layoff Bounce Back - Sharon Rich Sites: layoffbounceback.com/ Self-description: "unemployed? Frequency: "the first monday of every month, 9am sharp (PST) as long Please let me know if know of others to add, or if you have any feedback. Check your Alma Mater's website - I know USC has a number of job search webinars and teleconferences