TechCrunch one of my favorite technology blogs has created a layoff tracker. You can track in real time the state of the job market in the tech field. At the time of writing total employees laidoff: 189,849. This is a great tool to watch and see how bad things really get.

Personal note: It’s a sad day here in Seattle 5,000 employees from Microsoft are getting laid off. There are a lot of nervous employees today. 1,400 job cuts are expected today. Washington State is fast approaching the national unemployment average, we hit 7.1% last month up from 6.2% in November.  The national average is 7.2% the highest level in almost 16 years.