Are jobs starting to open up where you live?

Actually the island where I live,employment as well as the population goes down during Fall & Winter !!!

Actually, yes they are. Not as many nor as well paying since so much of the construction dried up but frankly the housing market here was white hot and NEEDED a cool off.

/rant = ON
Yeah, it stings a bit but this has the effect of cleaning out some of the excess contractors. Some of the attitudes and piss poor work I had seen were appalling, at this point my sympathy is about used up for them. 'I can't find any work' when there are several new construction projects underway in towns a couple of hours away, point that out to them and all you hear is 'I don't want to go that far' or 'I'd have to move' (duh!). Similarly if you point them towards (or even lay the ground work to help them get) a new job that, though it may pay less, at least is some income. 'Oh, thats not enough for me'. WAAAAH! Po' baby! Got news for you, your $50.00+ hour work isn't coming back any time soon, there are plenty of unemployed people would be happy to have the $10.00/hour job I just handed you, guess you'll just have to learn to cut back a bit. 'I can't cut back!' Then you deserve to go bankrupt, the reason you can't make it is because you just had to have two brand new model year vehicles, had to have three or four vacations a year during the boom, had to buy the wifey all kinds of gewgaws. Not my fault you have all the financial sense of a rabid badger and married a golddigger that spent all your money when you had work orders falling in your lap. The parable of the ant and the grasshopper comes to mind, the ant storing away food during the summer (the good times) and the grasshopper fiddling the time away playing until winter comes and the grasshopper starves due to his lack of preparation.
/rant = OFF ;)

I've had hard times and likely will have more, however, the imperious attitude of some of these contractors is ridiculous. I'd have some sympathy if they tried to help themselves rather than sitting around with their thumbs in their butts waiting for Uncle Sugar to come save them. If you're genuinely trying then good on you but if your 'solution' is to sit around moaing and wishing the good ol' days were back I've no sympathy.

yes for the younger generations.
not for us old guys.