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Dot.gone in California
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December 28, 2000: 3:24 p.m. ET
Silicon Valley sees wave of layoffs, Web closings in December
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - For Silicon Valley, it's been a December to forget.
As job cuts mount at Internet companies around the country, the tech-laden San Francisco Bay area is seeing some of the biggest reductions of all – and one local employment service sees more bad news ahead.
At least 2,300 layoffs have been announced at more than 20 Silicon Valley Web companies this month, according to data compiled by ValleyJobs.com, a San Francisco-area employment site, in its first monthly study of Internet-related job cuts.
That compares with 10,459 Internet-related layoffs nationwide so far in December, according to a report Wednesday by job outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
 Among the Silicon Valley casualties have been workers at San Francisco-based Internet consulting firm Scient Corp. (SCNT: Research, Estimates), which announced it will cut 460 jobs, and Ventro Corp. (VNTR: Research, Estimates), a Mountain View, Calif.-based builder of business-to-business online exchanges, which is slashing 235 jobs.
Privately held online music site Riffage shut down, putting 60 employees out of work, and free Internet service provider Spinway, also a private company, also announced it will close, leaving 100 people jobless.
Many money-losing Web companies have been laying off workers amid a downturn in Internet stocks and a lack of capital. Venture capitalists have scaled back their investments in dot.com companies and the IPO market has dried up for most Internet firms.
Joseph Shieh, founder of ValleyJobs.com, said he anticipates more layoffs ahead for Silicon Valley, which has the largest number of Internet companies of anywhere in the country.
"In 2001, we predict times will continue to get worse for Internet companies, not better," he said in a statement accompanying the study. "More 'Net firms will have to lay off employees and eventually go out of business."
He told CNNfn.com that most of the laid-off workers in the Silicon Valley area are finding other jobs relatively easily if they have technical skills.
U.S. unemployment levels are still at near-record lows, but many economists believe the slowing economy will cause joblessness to rise slightly next year. 
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ValleyJobs.com
Scient
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