Washington Mutual Layoffs Taking Effect

From his base at the bottom of WaMu Tower, on the opposite corner from the 42-story WaMu Center, he used to watch WaMu workers spill off buses in the mornings and stop in for coffee before crossing the street for work. "Even though they had their own cafeteria," he said, "a lot of them would come here."

Now many are gone, and the stories he's heard have been varied, heartbreaking and all too familiar in a faltering economy. The married couple that found themselves both unemployed. The former WaMu auditor, unwilling or unable to test the local job market, who transferred to a JPMorgan Chase job in Ohio while his wife stayed behind to let their children finish the school year. And the man who was downsized and forced to postpone his wedding.