Slow job market in LA

I am a senior level Mechanical engineer based in LA area, with a very busy career mostly in Plumbing Engineering field and diversified enough to touch Fire Protection and HVAC as well. The resession has finally caught up with me in August and I have never seen a slow market like this ever specially in engineering. I am constantly monitoring several sites for openings with my resume all over. Is this really the cyclic nature of these fields and are we going to come out of it by early next year as economy rebounds? Of course everybody's situation is different and we have to play the cards as they come.