Hey there Jon, thanks for all the great info. Here's a nice website that keeps track of all of that(the layoffs part) and helps people get back on their feet: http://gamejobwatch.com/ I hope it comes in handy.
I suspect a lot are missing, only 8 for the UK sounds fishy - but a lot of smaller layoffs go unnoticed (less than ~20 people, I believe, doesn't have to be reported here). P.S GameJobHunter needs location filters ;)