Image via CrunchBaseThe economy is driving layoffs and three companies are reporting layoffs today. They are Hi5 a social network which is the 3rd largest in the world, Adbrite a advertising platform, and Yahoo announcing job cuts today. 3,560 people are going to be looking for new jobs this morning.

Hi5 is dropping between 10 and 15 percent of its workforce today, as they go through a restricting process to help them survive the next year or so until the markets correct themselves. While I am surprised that any social networking platform is going to do layoffs, this might be a big indicator of where bebo and facebook might go. MySpace is making money, lots of money (and they have lots of ads per page), they are defying the downturn. Social networks will see a large uptake in people who have time on their hands and are looking for new jobs, what makes this interesting is that a social network is laying off staff. Things might not be that rosy for the smaller social networks.

Adbrite is laying off 40% of staff, or 40 people in total. According to Techcrunch this will make them profitable and living within their means. The 40 people might not be too happy, but the 60 remaining people might be able to make it through the downturn without going through another round of layoffs. It all depends on how bad the advertising market gets, or how big Google gets as the smaller competitors go under.

Rumors are persisting at Yahoo that 3,500 people are going to be laid off. The rumor is a Valleywag rumor, so odds are likely that this could be considered true. Although Valleywag also points out an inconsistency here with a multi-million dollar party smacking of the AIG party in the middle of bail outs and layoffs. The timing could not be worst.

Expect more rounds of layoffs at smaller companies and bigger companies for the next year, but also there might be a swing in contractors being brought in to replace people. Contractors overall are generally considered to be less expensive than regular employees. Expect wages to go down in relationship to the contractors that will be brought on as staff.

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