Most companies that are not publicly laying people off or frozen are still "hiring", but they are extremely selective and conservative in their hiring practices. This is true of all major US markets. It's a decent time to be an established programmer, but it's probably utterly terrible for a 22-year-old CS grad.

For aspiring hedge fund quants, it's bad (bad all around) but not nearly as bad as the financial news would have one think. Talentless, unskilled IBD/M&A kids are toast and will never earn that kind of compensation again, but quants and IT are still in high demand.