Google Inc.

As a cost cutting measure, Google Inc. plans to cut 20 engineering jobs in Austin and close the office it opened there in October. The engineers were notified recently and offered jobs at other Google offices, although the company doesn't operate any other engineering plants in this part of the country, said the senior vice president of engineering and research. Google also operates a sales and marketing office on North MoPac Expressway that will remain open, he said. In terms of job loss it’s not a devastating blow to the local economy, but it does significantly bruise Austin’s ego and reputation as a tech hub. Even though Google's local engineering arm started, and ended, small, city and economic development leaders have been proud to tout in the past few months that the Internet titan felt it was essential to have engineering talent in and from Austin.