1.   As a result, some independent CGI firms are laying off workers.

2.   Mortgage banks added employees from September to October, even as other financial-services firms were laying people off.

3.   Nearly a dozen firms are laying fiber-optic networks from the Atlantic to the Urals to offer a broader communications backbone for the Internet.

4.   Now as the firm lays off workers and reduces compensation, that pact has been called into question.

5.   Some firms have laid off associates in recent months but have insisted that only poor performers have been affected, she said.

6.   Some firms have laid off consultants or deferred starting dates for new hires.

7.   Still, some firms are laying plans to sell bonds as early next week.

8.   Still, the news is especially remarkable for Cisco because the firm has never laid off more than a handful of permanent workers before.

9.   The firm has been laying off consultants.

10.   The market is at an all-time high and brokerage firms have been laying off.