There are more signs of rough economic times. Cisco has just announced it will completely freeze hiring in this entire quarter after completely flat earnings despite a marginal 8% increase in sales. CEO John Chambers estimated total revenue for this quarter will be a maximum of 10% below levels two years ago in the same time. Chambers also points out that the slow down in demand isn’t only in North America and aggregate demand is declining in Europe and Asia as well, further indicating global economic uncertainty and volatility. Chambers still remains optimistic and says the company is still expected to grow by about 15% by next year. Cisco (CC) stock price (doesn’t pay dividends) has fallen by 5% subsequent to the news in after hours trading. Also, most recently, Cisco acquired Jabber. Via

There are also other reports of job losses in the web 2.0 realm, video start-up Veoh and LinkedIn are also cutting their workforce by 18 and 10 percent, respectively.

In other news, the Toronto Realestate Board has released new home price figures which show the average house in Toronto now sells for about $353,000 compared to almost $400,000 last October. The report also says houses took longer to sell. Home prices also declined in Vancouver, from about $568,000 to $518,000 YoY. Condo prices also declined in Edmonton, which saw the biggest decline YoY in real estate prices. The real estate market in Toronto has particularly been a sellers market, though now as prices are falling and demand is decreasing while supply has increased by 32% year over year, it is clearly a buyers market in this volatile time which will probably see yet more declines in home values in Canada.