Since our country has mostly shifted away from "on-shore" manufacturing, we have lost a huge chunk of working class jobs (working in those factories) and middle class jobs (managing those operations). Instead we have a some highly-technical jobs (like engineering, science, medicine, law, finance, etc.) and most of the rest are service industry jobs.
Just about all the engineers I know are still working, and in fact getting the same pay they were last year. (Some even got a year-end bonus.) These are the people companies don't want to lose even if their projects are cancelled, because when things do turn around a team of new hires won't have the knowledge base needed to execute quickly.
The car salesmen, on the other hand, are totally screwed: I have friends-of friends who both have been laid off from their car dealorship jobs, now looking at foreclosure. I have a brother-in-law who is a licensed General Contractor specialising in high-end remodeling and renovation, now reduced to installing fences around my property to avoid bankruptcy.
I think the contraction in the construction industries have caused the most pain in California. These guys (and gals) were the one big pool of non-service employees and contractors we had left, but now are in seriously deep s--t. They were a major conduit from big business and finance right into all the local economies, but now they are not buying cars and trucks, not spending the money they no longer have, and even losing their homes. With these customers gone, businesses large and small are laying off some of their work force too, or just closing their doors.
One thing that really stood out for me in the original article of this thread, is that the California High Speed Rail project is perhaps the most "shovel-ready" of such projects in the nation. The stimulus money could create many construction jobs, even if they are not exactly those the home construction industry lost. But even so a drywaller can learn to work with concrete or stucco, a residential plumber can install restrooms in train stations (or even in new train cars), heavy equipment operators can grade and compact railbeds, etc. So I think the HSR project could be a big boost for the San Diego to Bay Area economies.
