Local snapshot:
A local explosives industry has employees given one extra day off/week. Workers from some sections of the plant are doing jobs in another section for less pay one day per week.
A local town lost its largest employer well before the August/September blowup. The plant was in the furniture industry, and its downfall took a long time, but was a big blow to the local economy. The closure may have had to do with the death of its founder; the sons who inherited apparently weren't up to the task, but the business just wasn't there for them either way.
3M has laid off several people in a town north of here I think.
My sister was laid off from a NE Oklahoma oil company last month. She wasn't in a senior position ... but was a data analyst.
My business has basically gone downhill for a couple of years ... don't know that it's economic factors, but rather that I hadn't the knowledge to cross the next hump.
My take: it is rather bad out there.
