The Seattle branch of Sony Online Entertainment has been closed along with two other offices, according to a statement released by the company yesterday afternoon. more ›

Since the only thing worse than being on the dole is being kicked off it, we're glad the feds are extending our unemployment benefits in this state. Even REI is cutting jobs. Guess that outdoorsy date scene from The Bachelor didn't help? more ›

John Cook reports on more layoffs at Rhapsody, a RealNetwork unit based here in Seattle. Fortunately, there's good tech news today too: a Brazilian tech company called Spring Networks is setting up shop in the city, and will be hiring some 35 employees. The Southlake is looking at possible upsides to the bored tunnel viaduct replacement option. West Seattle Blog has more updates on the Junction shooting, including photos of the memorial set up at the site. And over at Sound Transit Blog, there's a list of the major Sound Transit Express changes coming up in 2009. more ›

Fourth quarter wasn't good to Boeing, with a $56 million loss reported today by executives. The company expects to lay off 10,000 employees this year, 4,500 of which will be in their commercial airplanes division--and more than half of which will be local jobs down the hatch. We'd like to note for the record that we're getting tired of reporting all the layoff news from the biggest employers in our region, and once again extend our best wishes and send good financial vibes in the direction of those Seattleites who will be affected by the upcoming round of job cuts. Perhaps all the bad news signals the beginning of an era of unprecedented creativity and community building; that's what we're holding out for, anyway. In other job news, U.S. Customs is hiring. more ›

TechFlash reports that the list of downsizing Seattle start-ups--Avelle, Intrepid Learning, AdReady, PayScale, and Redfin--has a new member. Jobster, which underwent some widely blogged about shrinkage last year, is saying goodbye to another 15 staff. With terrific understatement, John Cook notes that Jobster "has tested a number of different business concepts since it was founded in 2004," and says that it now is all about "online recruiting software that helps companies manage job prospects." If only the software had a reverse switch, you know, so you could just flip that and manage layoffs instead. That would be a huge seller right now. more ›

The Seattle Times reports that a whopping 400 county government jobs will be cut in King County Executive Ron Sims' 2009 budget. The cuts are part of Sim's plan to reduce county expenditures by $93 million for the next year, a significant belt-tightening. Sims did say that he's trying to delay budget cuts in health and human services, but still....400 jobs gone translates to a lot of men and women who will be looking for work soon. Anyone hiring? more ›