The numbers are bad, of course, but compared with previous months, they could be worse. Considerably fewer planned layoffs are listed for October and November, so far, although they increase again in December. All told, as of Thursday, approximately 4,800 private-company employees were scheduled to lose their jobs by the end of the year, according to the WARN database (sfgate.com/webdb/jobcuts).

Among those hardest hit in the Bay Area next month are Santa Clara semiconductor manufacturer Applied Materials Inc., South San Francisco's Genentech Inc., and the Asimolar Conference Center in Monterey. Roche Palo Alto LLC, a unit of the Swiss pharma giant, which recently absorbed Genentech into its family, is cutting at least 166 jobs between now and the end of the year. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is planning to lay off at least 284 staffers over the same period.

Biggest loser: The USS-Posco Industries steel plant in Pittsburg, which is scheduled to lose 827 workers in December.

Staying the course: A glimmer of good news for those looking for some help to start their own thing. Kiva, the San Francisco microfinance organization that aids aspiring entrepreneurs in the developing world, has decided to continue with its controversial U.S. loan program.

The program, launched in June, ran into howls of protest from Kiva members, including a group calling itself "The Pissed Off Kiva Lenders Team," which asserted loans to Americans diverted resources from where "the needs are greatest to where they are the least." "Overwhelming feedback" in the form of e-mails, blog posts, an online poll and a "community conference call" ensued. Kiva's management decided to go forward, with the condition that U.S. loans will henceforth "align more closely with Kiva's poverty alleviating mission."

Understandable given that Kiva's own online poll showed a thin 47-45 percent in favor, with 8 percent undecided. You can read all about it at links.sfgate.com/ZHYT.

Whole lotta heat: Talk about overwhelming feedback. As of Thursday afternoon, my item and subsequent pro and con blog postings, penned by two readers, on the Whole Foods boycott movement had generated 1,070 comments ( www.sfgate.com/ZHYV; www.sfgate.com/ZHYW). That's what we call in the business a hot button. Though one wonders whether the heat goes beyond the fact that Whole Foods, the brand, generates visceral responses even in politically calm times.

In this case, maybe some of the boycott calls reflect a broader, entirely understandable anger with the way the health care debate has been going, which is badly. So badly that genuine reform may have already been lost. And, perhaps the company with a liberal image, whose CEO pens an anti-"Obamacare" op-ed, becomes a focus for those feelings of anger and loss.

I oppose the boycott, but sympathize with those feelings.

Blogging at www.sfgate.com/columns/ bottomline. Twittering at twitter.com/andrewsross. Tips, feedback: E-mail bottomline@sfgate.com.

This article appeared on page C - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle