Though early reports on Friday were that Microsoft had instituted a hiring freeze and distributed an employee memo to that effect, the company now says that is not correct. Acknowledging that a slowdown is inevitable, Microsoft now is reviewing the necessity to "make some adjustments." The record for the company's largest percentage increase in total number of employees happens to belong to last year, says this Seattle Post-Intelligencer piece. The P-I also notes that local businesses are watching Microsoft's hiring practices carefully, to see what kind of spillover effect they might be dealing with.

Meanwhile, tech companies in Silicon Valley are becoming more nervous, as they watch the prospects for credit and early funding sources disappear. And the most recent unemployment figures for the area put the rate at 6.6 percent for August, a four-year high and above the national average.