Speaking for just the engineering industry... Prior to the recession it was almost impossible to find decent help. All you needed was a certificate from UW, WSU or Shick Shadel,... Hell, it didn't even matter if you were down syndrome and voted republican, you could land a job anywhere... all we needed were bodies to fill budgets!

But, times are a changin and a persons reputation follows them around... The dead wood of yesterday are the unemployed of today. For most of the folks that I've seen get let go it is time for a career change anyway but you will never be able convince them of that...

It would be nice to have the same growth/workload issues that we had before but then again its nice to be able to take a vacation once and a while too...