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Tech may be done with layoffs for 2008, but 2009 is another matter entirely. Now that the souring economy has had its way with Yahoo (YHOO) and AMD (AMD) and Palm (PALM) and Sun (JAVA) and Nortel (NT), it’s moving on to bigger fare. We’ve already heard predictions that Google (GOOG) will sack as much as 15 percent of its workforce next year. Now come rumors that Microsoft (MSFT) is steeling itself for large-scale job cuts as well. “Come 22 Jan., 2009 Microsoft will be asked by the analysts what it is doing to contain costs,” Microsoft employee-blogger Mini-Microsoft writes. “And I believe Microsoft will have an answer. I think this is one solution that you don’t want to be a part of. I’m all for cutting back, but it should have been done long ago, responsibly, vs. forced upon us.” He speculates that the ax will swing on Jan. 15, 2009, and will take 10 percent of the company’s workforce when it does.

Now, Mini-Microsoft is not an official company blog, and it’s penned by an anonymous author. So the layoff rumor it’s floating should be viewed as just that, a rumor. That said, the blog has long been a clearinghouse for internal information Microsoft would much prefer to keep under wraps–and a fairly accurate one at that. So it’s certainly worth paying attention to. As Joe Wilcox writes over at Microsoft Watch, “When Mini speaks layoffs, I believe.”