Ask HN: How's business?

It occurs to me that the group here collectively knows more about the state of our industry than any trade publication, so: how's business? Have you noticed things improving? Planning a startup? I don't see much startup news here and on other sites anymore, just lots of stories about the economy (duh). Here hiring still seems to be trending down; I thought we'd be on the upswing by now. I monitor the job ads for a few different technologies and there are jobs but not a whole lot, and especially not the direct company listings that to me indicate a healthy market. Instead there are many cross-posted recruiter listings--lots of sharks all fighting over the same fish. I also got pretty much the same story from a developer/blogger who knows many freelancers having a tough time right now. What's everybody else seeing?