Yes, even Microsoft is laying off employees in this dismal financial markets. Around five thousand of them from what I read online. I doubt Microsoft *had* to lay these folks off, from what I understand, Microsoft has way more money that it knows what to do with. I mean just a few short months ago it was going to BUY Yahoo. Now they are short on cash? My bet is that many big companies use tough economic times as an excuse to purge their staff of non-essential employees.And these days it seems like every big company is laying off at least a thousand employees. What are these folks to do?Sure, they can collect their unemployment checks, and the better employers probably provide some severance pay, but I bet a lot of wage and cash based employees are really suffering.Let's get started on a financial rebirth!