"For every Big Pharma layoff, there seemed to be five small companies cutting a portion of their workers. An inhospitable funding environment made it difficult for many smaller companies to raise capital, and they were forced to cut jobs and non-essential programs in order to stretch their cash. These smaller cuts didn't make it into our top five but you can see a full list of this year's layoffs here [link above]. And here is the list of the top 5 layoffs of 2008":