Yahoo started out the year with layoffs, and it is going to end the year with more. The layoffs have been expected ever since Yahoo hired hatchet men from Bain & Co. to come help with the downsizing. The exact number of layoffs is still not known—between 1,000 and 3,000 are the numbers being discussed. During its earnings conference call on Tuesday, Yahoo is expected to announce how many people it will let go. In addition, operating budgets across the board are expected to be cut 15 percent.

In January, Yahoo laid off 1,000 people, and all year it has been suffering from a major drain of talent. But it still has plenty of employees—about 14,000. Getting rid of another 10 percent or so would have a meaningful financial impact by lowering expenses, but it would also lower morale.

Not that Jerry Yang has much choice these days. We’ll update the layoff tracker when the final numbers are known.