Various offices and work sites around Aspen and Pitkin County are shedding jobs, in as sure a sign yet seen of economic distress in the upper valley.

Perhaps the most dramatic incident occurred two weeks ago, when Related WestPac announced it would be laying off about a quarter of its office staff - about 15 white-collar, professional employees - when the development firm found out it would have to delay the third phase of Snowmass' Base Village project due to construction financing that fell through.

But impacts of the delay, which will affect three buildings including the much-touted arrival center, are not limited to Related's office staff. Local public relations guru Maureen Poschman confirmed Monday that a portion of the construction workforce erecting the steel beams and pouring the concrete at the one million-square-foot Base Village development will also find themselves out of a job. On the busiest days at the construction site, there are between 400 and 500 workers.

While the decisions about staffing levels are up to the contractors and subcontractors working the project, many of which have yet to be made, Poschman said to expect a change. While some employees will see a shift in their responsibilities, other jobs will be lost, Poschman said.

"It seems inevitable that there would be some decreases," she said.

Design Workshop, a landscape architecture and urban planning firm with offices in Aspen and deep ties to the Colorado ski industry, has had to cut staff in all of its seven offices except for Austin, Texas, said Aspen co-principal Kurt Culbertson. Of the 25 employees in the Main Street Aspen office, about 20 percent had to be let go, Culbertson said.

"If you are related to real estate in any way in the U.S., there's a pretty significant slowdown," Culbertson said.

Noting the four recessions he could count since coming to Aspen in 1979, Culbertson said the company had been though tough times before and, despite the cutbacks, the lean firm is still going strong with expanding opportunities in places like Costa Rica, Panama and Japan.

"Sometimes you have to go farther and farther away from the cave to find food," Culbertson said.

The firm also has local projects such as work on the Aspen Area Community Plan update, long-range planning work for the Aspen Skiing Co. and business in residential garden design.

"As painful as a slowdown can be, it can serve a useful purpose," Culbertson said. "It requires you to focus on what you are good at."

The real estate sector is no doubt in for a bumpy ride. While sharp increases in price and demand led to a 32 percent increase in the number of employees in the local real estate sector since 2001, according to a recent report on the Aspen economy, the current slowdown seems poised to thin out the herd. According to the report commissioned by the city of Aspen and compiled by the firm Economic Research Associates, there are approximately 2,450 people employed through real estate in Pitkin County, although not all of those people live in Pitkin County.

"Based on the historical record, the Aspen real estate market and economy should not be considered invulnerable to a major economic slowdown," the report said. "ERA believes it is likely that a significant recession will cause a further decline in Aspen real estate sales and construction activity, leading in reductions in attainable prices for comparable homes."

Aspen Board of Realtors Executive Vice President Stacey Rinker said membership in her organization has remained fairly steady all year with about 730 Realtors. While some have dropped their memberships, someone new typically joins to fill their place, Rinker said.

But the board is planning for a drop in membership next year of about 50 Realtors, Rinker said. While she doesn't believe real estate woes have hit Colorado as hard as other states, Rinker said it's still too early to know the full extent of the damage.

"We're all kind of wondering what's going to happen," she said, pegging March 1 as the date by which the picture could be clearer.

And with hundreds, if not thousands, of real estate license holders in Pitkin County who are not members of the Aspen Board of Realtors, Rinker acknowledged that there are plenty of part-time brokers out there who could be feeling the squeeze but are not on the board's radar.

Those finding themselves out of work do have options. Web sites like rockies.craigslist.org list jobs available in nearly every sector in the Rocky Mountain region, though not always in the Roaring Fork Valley. Aspen's newspapers also carry help-wanted ads. Those who find themselves out of a job and out of luck can also apply for unemployment benefits through the state of Colorado Department of Labor and Unemployment. Additionally Pitkin County Health and Human services works with those in need to provide things like food stamps, energy cost assistance and counseling.

Perhaps this could be the year when an out-of-work professional fulfills his or her dream of working on the mountain.

Aspen Skiing Co. spokesman Jeff Hanle reported that the company plans on reaching full staffing levels this year. As such, nearly every conceivable entry-level position between SkiCo's mountains and hotels are listed as available on the company's Web site, from cooks and cocktail servers to ski instructors, mountain ambassadors, snowmakers and ski patrollers.

During the busy Christmas and spring break weeks in years past, SkiCo would often find its ski schools sold out. That may not be the case this year, but that doesn't mean there won't be plenty of work, Hanle said.

"There's no hiring freeze," Hanle announced, plugging a SkiCo job fair to be held Saturday at the Inn at Aspen.