Agreed - this also matches my anecdotal observations and much of what I've read over the last 2 years. What I can't decide is if in the US this is more driven

Agreed - this also matches my anecdotal observations and much of what I've read over the last 2 years. What I can't decide is if in the US this is more driven by a major structural change in the economy (i.e. capitalism's creative destruction) or if companies across the board were using the recession as an excuse to lay off unneeded workers due to broader productivity increases (i.e. capitalism's efficiency-rewarding) or both. Some sectors seem to be more creative destruction (think auto companies and financial firms) while it looks to me like the broader economy responded by locking in productivity gains (eliminating unproductive positions to save costs) to give themselves enough padding to weather the downturn. Maybe the broader productivity gains were enough that the growing parts of the economy won't need to re-hire as many workers to maintain their growth rates. That means that job creation is going to have to be a lot of "new" jobs - ones in new and/or growing industries - and not just refilling the old jobs. That's just my armchair analysis, so I'm not sure how accurate it will end up being.