The “Laid Off” slide from Damian Katz’s presentation at RubyFringe.

This does not bode well: Kara Swisher, author of the BoomTown blog and co-producer of the “D: All Things Digital” conference says that while the current economic downturn is hitting bank employees now, it’ll spill over into other industries, and that includes ours:

With the economic situation obviously worsening – don’t say you weren’t warned – BoomTown has no doubt now that Internet companies are in the midst of reevaluating their troop numbers to streamline themselves for the coming few months of financial winter.

There’s general agreement among advertising-supported internet companies that a slowdown in the ad market is coming, and they’re tightening their belts accordingly. This belt-tightening usually takes the form of a double-whammy: layoffs and hiring freezes, and this has led to unemployment in Silicon Valley hitting its highest rate (6.5%) in four years last month, the fourth month in a row it’s increased.

It might not be a bad idea to work on some contingency plans, just in case.

In his article, Laid off? The one thing you absolutely need to do on the first day, Jason Kester suggests that “the single most important thing to do as soon as you make it back to your house with that box full of stuff is to book a flight. Read the article for his reasons why.