81.   But private companies have increasingly laid claim to new postal services such as express mail and crossborder re-mailing.

82.   Companies have laid off workers, trimmed hours and deeply discounted merchandise to work off excess inventories.

83.   Companies are laying off staff and dismissing executives.

84.   Companies are laying off workers and food prices are soaring.

85.   Each company laid off online staff and severed links with Internet startups, WebMD for News Corp. and TheStreet.com for the Times.

86.   Finance companies have collapsed, consumer prices are rising and many companies are laying off employes or cutting salaries and benefits.

87.   He said his company was also laying pipes to channel some two million litres of water daily from other sources to the plant.

88.   In January, the company laid off more than half its staff.

89.   It was as if a theater company laid off a third of its actors and then went berserk buying props.

90.   Manufacturing activity has fallen, consumer confidence is down, holiday sales were disappointing and major U.S. companies are laying off thousands of workers.