History, English Job Markets Off 15-20% This Year

Story here.  I've not seen reliable data on Philosophy, but the anecdotal evidence is consistent with a similar decline in positions--and there is still the risk, alas, that positions will disappear or be frozen before being filled.  I wish there were some hopeful news to report, but at present there isn't.  I am expecting next year to be at least as bad if not worse than this year (schools budget a couple of years into the future, so last year's financial crisis will start to be reflected in budgets going forward especially).  If there is some sign of economic recovery in 2009, then 2010-11 may show some recovery in the academic job market, though it is doubtful it will be sufficient to deal with the backlog of unsuccessful candidates from this year and next.  So the bottom line, as I see it, is that we are in for several years of very difficult job markets.  Thoughts/data from others?  Ideas about strategies for job seekers?  Non-anonymous comments preferred, but anonymous comments must utilize real e-mail addresses (they will not appear).