As BoomTown and many others in the blogosphere have reported for weeks now (so glad old media outlets have finally discovered the Yahoo layoffs), Yahoo management is working on at least a 10 percent layoff of its almost 15,000 employees.

But, because top execs have decided they need the cuts to have good “optics” for Wall Street, they have instructed managers over the weekend to make sure that all cuts include specific staff reductions, even though previous marching orders only had called for percentage cuts in costs.

The sudden shift is irking many managers I spoke to at Yahoo, who now have long had a modicum of control over their own businesses and feel they are being dictated to by top management who got the company in trouble in the first place.

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With the economic situation obviously worsening–don’t say you weren’t warned–BoomTown has no doubt now that Internet companies are in the midst of reevaluating their troop numbers to streamline themselves for the coming few months of financial winter.

That’s why, according to several sources at Yahoo, for example, top execs are telling some employees that the company is considering options to get itself sized right for an expected slowdown in the advertising market.

Why now? Well, it is critically important that Yahoo give Wall Street a solid performance when it reports third-quarter earnings on Oct. 21, for the period ending Sept. 30.

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