Much of this is due to the fact that many companies are now hiring contractors instead of full-time employees. In many cases, the contractors were previously f

Much of this is due to the fact that many companies are now hiring contractors instead of full-time employees. In many cases, the contractors were previously full-timers at the same company and either started their own firm in order to bill their time or banded together in order to bid on work. Laid-off workers, especially those who knew each other professionally, are discovering it's better to collaborate than to compete for the same job and it's no accident they have leveraged Linked-In and Skype. I don't believe this is a short-term phenomenon but a long-term paradigm shift. And there's a valuable lesson in this for the current 16-35 year-olds reading HN. Today's 35-65 year-olds are scrambling to raise kids, pay mortgages, taxes, healthcare, college tuitions, etc., all the while working to rebuild what's left of their retirement accounts. There's an enormous amount of angst and creative energy going into this right now of which entrepreneurship is playing a part. A means to the end if you will. A true worldwide economic recovery (the movement of goods and services) will be born of individual initiative based upon need and self-interest. Age is irrelevant.