We know a number of people in private and public industry who are making less this year than they were last year. Some have had absolute pay cuts, ranging from 5-15%. Some have been furloughed/had reduced hours or days. Some have lost their jobs and now have new jobs that pay much less. Some who own their own businesses have seen a dramatic decrease in business.

Of course, some have been unemployed for many months now, with no good prospects in sight.

I believe the job market is bad and getting worse. BTW, the state’s budget problems are not even close to being solved, so I expect much more pain to come there, too.