Employers and employees alike are trying to cope.  Per this AP report, 598,000 jobs were lost in January, and the unemployment rate is 7.6%.  Not good.  On the other hand,

Employers are slashing payrolls and turning to other ways to cut costs — including trimming workers' hours, freezing wages or cutting pay — to cope with shrinking appetites from customers in the U.S. and overseas, who are struggling with their own economic troubles.

Let's hope that these measures keep some people in jobs and the doors of business open.  Working together Americans can and will beat this problem.