21.   Matsushita, like many other Japanese companies, has worked hard to avoid layoffs, a stance characterized as foot-dragging by foreigners but regarded as heroic here.

22.   Nancy Nielsen, a spokeswoman for the Times Co., said that the paper hoped to reach that goal through attrition and voluntary buyouts and hoped to avoid layoffs.

23.   Other Bell companies have been trying to avoid layoffs by creating a two-tier work force.

24.   Pilots and mechanics voluntarily reduced pay rates and work hours to avoid layoffs.

25.   Prominent Democrats have called for tax subsidies to reward companies that train workers and avoid layoffs.

26.   Some talent agencies have even started strike funds, with executives and agents kicking in percentages of their earnings now to avoid layoffs later.

27.   Sun had been one of the few major high-technology companies to avoid mass layoffs, instead of using performance reviews to trim its work force.

28.   That has generated ideas like reducing the workweek to four days in order to avoid layoffs.

29.   The city has been allowed to reduce payments into union pension funds and take money out of other union funds to close the budget gaps and avoid layoffs.

30.   The surplus also should go toward early retirement initiatives aimed at reducing the size of the state work force while avoiding layoffs, Rein said.