This is totally different from any other event anyone has experienced. I am a "victim of 9/11" (as the unemployment office put it) and I am still looking for a flying job. Fortunately I have a "regular" job that allows me time to search. The best advise I can give you is to start researching more economic type web sites instead of aviation sites. Here are a couple I frequent:

zero hedge | on a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

The Market Ticker

This one gets some interesting "theories/conspiracies", but occasionally they get a good nugget of info. I think it's basically a bunch of people sitting around finding the latest news from various sites and then adding their 2 cents. Read it with a grain of salt:

Overview of Global Meltdown topics on AboveTopSecret.com

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/109/pg1/srtpages

From what I read and research about where we are as an economy, it doesn't look good for some time. It appears the main stream media is pumping "it is over/green shoots" and we have recovered. I think this is because they want Obama to succeed. People in the know say it is just starting with several bad things looming like the commercial real estate bubble which is about to pop and be worse than the last real estate bubble that started all this. Basically, we are waiting for the other shoe to drop. You never know. Maybe there is a miracle out there that will turn everything around. Do your research and make your own decision. I kind of think you out of work guys should get a job, any job, and hold on to it.

How long? The great depression lasted almost 10 years or so before WW2 pulled us out of it.