They said that the people they're letting go would be welcome back if/when things get better.

I'm a clever problem-solver and an okay programmer. One of my greatest assets to the company was that I'd been there so long, and have a good understanding of how many of the systems work. (That's somewhat moderated by the growing number of systems that are so kludgy that *nobody* understands them, and those that are using new platforms that I don't know anything about.)

One big problem is that many of the company's customers are in the U.S., and their economy is in bad shape. I don't think things will get much better for the company until things improve in the U.S.