I was mentioning this yesterday in a thread, but just about everyone I know has experienced layoffs and hiring freezes at their place of employment. These are primarily office / corporate type jobs, but it seems like most people are worried that they might be the next in line for layoffs. There's a tangible sense of fear.
This is just my dumb opinion, but it seems like a lot of places over hired for the past several years and a lot of places overpaid for the level of talent they were hiring. I only have my own anecdotal experience, and again, mostly talking about white collar jobs.
Anyway, if that actually was the case, it makes sense that some layoffs were coming the moment there was even the slightest bump in the road. But, I also think that a lot of places have over shot and dropped way more than they should have, too soon, too quickly, too many. Understandable given clown show festering at the top levels of the government these days, though.