Four Paine & Associates Employees Are Laid Off : Jobs: Firm had stressed its ranking as the county’s biggest employer in public-relations field.

Paine & Associates, the public-relations firm that has been touting its recent ranking as the biggest employer in its field in Orange County, laid off four people last week.

David Paine, the company’s president, said the layoffs are partially a response to an expected slowdown in revenue from clients who have nearly exhausted their annual promotion budgets, as well as uncertainty over the amount their clients will spend next year.

Even after the layoffs, the company is double its former size, with 31 people in Costa Mesa and three in Los Angeles. It employed 17 in one office a year ago.

“Sometimes you have to make the hard decisions even when you’re doing well,” Paine said. He noted that revenue should exceed $3 million this year, versus $1.6 million last year, and that profits have doubled.

The company laid off one of its four vice presidents, two account managers and an administrative employee.

One of the account managers who was let go is Debra Douglas, who sued former employer Hyundai Motor America early this year, alleging sexual abuse and sexual harassment. She lost the lawsuit.

“I was very surprised” about the layoffs, Douglas said. She said she had been with the agency less than two months and had brought in a major client, Birtcher Construction in Laguna Niguel.

Paine & Associates counts among its other clients Suzuki, Consolidated Freightways, Taco Bell, Allergan, Secure Horizons and Independence One Bank of California.