DuPont has cut nearly 300 contractor positions at its Richmond-area locations in recent months because of the global economic slowdown, a company executive said yesterday. The local job cuts are part of a larger corporate work-force reduction of about 2,500 DuPont employees and 4,000 contractor jobs, primarily at the company’s U.S. and European operations.

After three Wachovia Securities executives were offered a chance to move to St. Louis or lose their jobs, they spent a lot of time at the library. Every Tuesday night the trio met, hopping from one branch to another. Borne out of those gatherings was Oyster Consulting LLC, a firm that works with brokerage houses and investment advisers to help them with compliance and technology needs.

You’re supposed to be one of the lucky ones. You survived your company’s recent round of downsizing. Then why do you feel sad, angry and scared? Here’s how to cope when co-workers lose their jobs. Know that your feelings are normal: Since December 2007, the number of unemployed persons in the U.S. has increased by 2.7 million. Those folks surely have had a harder time of it than their co-workers still with jobs.

Eight months pregnant, Keisha Snead got word in March that her job would disappear at the end of the day. Like thousands of others in the struggling economy, she was reduced to an uncomfortable status - unemployed. Job losses during the past year have shown no mercy, striking all levels, from data-entry clerks to department managers, from new hires to senior employees.

The Virginia Employment Commission reported 172,900 Virginians without jobs in October - 52,100 people more than the 120,800 unemployed in October 2007. (November figures will not be available until later this month.) The statewide unemployment rate increased from 3 percent in October 2007 to 4.2 percent in October 2008. Both figures are lower than the U.S. unemployment rate of 4.4 percent in October 2007 and 6.1 percent in October 2008.