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

San Diego-based DivX has cut 21 employees in a layoff Thursday, a spokesperson for the firm told socalTECH Friday, confirming widespread reports of the move Thursday. Details or reasons for the layoff were not given. The layoffs follow the loss of the company's CTO late last wee

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. Tags: survey technology executives socaltech economy jobs hirin 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.

spokesperson for Veoh told socalTECH that the changes affected every group in the firm, and was because the firm wanted to make smart choices early on in the game given a possible internet advertising slowdown. The layoffs occurred yesterday, when employees were notified of the move. Los Angeles- and San Diego-based Veoh (www.veoh.com), an online video sharing site, has laid off 20 people, or roughly 18-20 percent of the firm's employees. A

Los Angeles-based Oversee.net is not immune to the stormy economy, and told socalTECH Thursday that is cutting 18 percent of the firm's workforce, or a total of 38 people, including some managers. Tags: employment layoff domainer oversee angeles domai The firm said it made the moves, because it expects a "very difficult economic environment" in 2009. Jeff Kupietzky, the firm's President, said that the firm will be focusing in on its domain name monetization, domain name aftermarket, registrar, and travel businesses.

spokesperson at the firm told socalTECH that the shutdown occurred yesterday, and that the firm is now in the process of looking for buyers of its technology. Aliso Viejo-based High Tower Software, a venture-backed developer of security, compliance, and log management software, has shut down. A

And, on a sad note, Martin Schaedel -- well known to many in the Los Angeles technology community, and a contributor of photos to socalTECH-- has died in a plane crash at the Santa Monica airport. ...Tags: 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,

Last month, the firm's CEO, Peter Hoskins, told socalTECH that the "Most of what we do is consistently profitable, by design. Tags: jobs employment layoff video comerica content maniatv shutdow Los Angeles-based ManiaTV has shut its doors, after failing to find a buyer, according to the firm. The firm was in the business of creating original web content and video shows, and had been looking to find a buyer for the firm in the last few weeks.

spokeperson for the firm told socalTECH that the change was due to an "unprecedented change in the economic environment." Los Angeles-based Spot Runner has laid off 115 employees, as part of a new strategic plan, a spokeperson for the firm confirmed Monday. According to Spot Runner, the 115 represents about 30 percent of the company.

In a conversation with socalTECH, the firm's CEO and co-founder, Isaac Garcia, said the company had a record November and December, speculating that the economic environment actually drove adoption of its products. Garcia said that with the economic downturn and layoffs, he suspects there's been a push towards more virtual workers. "Many Pasadena-based Central Desktop said today that it is among the local firms seeing great results from Q4, despite the economy. The firm said its Q4 was "a record quarter" for the firm, which provides software-as-a-service tools for helping business