Major Houston corporations continue to cut white-collar jobs.

Compaq, Texaco Refining, top law firms report layoffs

Houston's unemployment rate dipped slightly last week, from 7.1 percent to 6.6 percent. But some of the biggest names in the local business community are still cutting jobs.

Official company announcements and industry trade publications are spreading the word that pink slips have gone out or are in the interoffice mail to Houston employees at Texaco Refining and Marketing Inc., Compaq Computer Corp. and three of the city's biggest law firms.

Unofficial head counts indicate that as many as 670 Houstonians could be pounding the pavement as a result of this latest round of corporate cutbacks. Ominously, …