At this point I have not heard of companies considering layoffs. They're going to look at any number of measures that can help them adjust to the current market, including slowing down the line rate and reducing overtime. There are situations when extended periods of time off have been taken over the Christmas period to adjust inventories to market conditions. They're trying very hard not to. They generally have a policy of not laying off full-time employees because they realize that in the longer term these are serious assets to the company. Having trained many of these individuals in the Toyota or other lean production system, they're assets to the company and they're loath to lay them off.
On March 9th, 2009. See this statement in context.