You may have noticed that in the released Citrix financials for 2008 that was just recently announced, the company's Q4 2008 and FY08 earnings results also showed that the company was going through a restructuring program.  It said it would take steps to reduce its headcount by somewhere in the neighborhood of 10% of its global workforce. 

This announcement comes on the heels of Microsoft's announced 5,000 job layoffs, or 5% of its global headcount. 

In VMware's 2008 financial reports, there wasn't any mention of layoffs, however, the company did say it had a hiring freeze.  However, the company is still trying to fill a few select positions, and in fact, have more than 150 job listings on VMware's corporate Web site.  I'm not sure if these are still active or not, but, they haven't been taken down.

All three companies are watching the economy in 2009.  I don't think any of them are predicting rosey outcomes just yet.