With the economy depressed and news outlets in a free fall, the anonymous gang behind Twitter account The Media Is Dying stepped up in November of 2008 to supply the internet with updates on the endless corporate layoffs. Like a horrific car wreck, we just can’t look away. Here were the most gruesome layoffs across all industries in 2008 (oh, and TMID says, “If you work at Microsoft you might want to update your resume.” Happy 2009!):

10. DHL Express and NASA tie for tenth place for cutting more than 10,000 people each.

9. Viacom cut 850 folks just before Christmas although those who were pink slipped might feel a little better knowing the higher ups are “suspending salary increases” for 2009.

8. CBS and CNET “restructured” and were rumored to lay off around 20% of their staff.

7. General Motors saw cuts of almost 34,000 people in 2008.

6. The Los Angeles Times also saw multiple rounds of cuts with the possibility of just going online in the near future mentioned although this is not confirmed.

5. Yahoo!, after a less-than-stellar year, cut thousands of jobs amidst a flurry of negative press and suffered multiple leaks about how the execs were to cut them.

4. The Bank of America buyout of Merrill Lynch cost 35,000 people their jobs.

3. Time Inc. was (unsurprisingly) the most publicized media cutters of 2008 losing more than 1,000 jobs across the board in 2008.

2. Gannet, one of the largest news distributors in the US with well over 1,000 outlets, cut over 2,000 jobs in 2008. Disgruntled employees (employed and unemployed) created a blog to track the layoffs.

1. Citigroup cut just under 73,000 jobs. Many blamed new CEO Vikram Pandit for doing a poor job of bringing Citi back on track – since he joined the company stock has plummeted by double figures.