Many schools are already announcing hiring freezes. As the article notes: "the hiring freezes have implications for an already brutal tenure-track job market. Next year’s hiring cycle could be nonexistent." That's probably too strong, but advertised jobs will be few and far between next academic year. (Related coverage.)
UPDATE: Berkeley just announced a hiring freeze today; I quote the announcement:
Today we are instituting a campus-wide hiring freeze. We therefore ask that you do not initiate any new searches and suspend those that have already begun. The Office of People and Culture (formerly central human resources) is completing work on a hiring-freeze plan which will be shared with managers and supervisors shortly. The campus will be making very limited exceptions to the hiring freeze, making only select hires that protect against a significant business disruption and/or a significant health, safety, or ethical compliance risk. All academic hiring requests will be carefully reviewed by the Provost’s office.
We also ask that you carefully monitor expenses as we enter the last quarter of our fiscal year and hold off on any major expenditures until our budget picture becomes clearer. Please consult with your manager/supervisor or department/division head for guidance.
The University of California has tended to go through cycles of feast and famine, but they are clearly anticipating famine if they're taking this step now.
