Of the economic to crisis and few pages on classified ads

I asked mom to buy me a copy of Manila Bulletin today. As per my experience in previous years, the first Sunday of January is usually the time when this newspaper would have a lot of section for Classified Ads. Lo and Behold! I only got 4 sections for the ads, with only a few pages in it! What's going on?

Also in the news, headline shows that RP and China are expected to be more resilient this 2009 according to Bloomberg, since we fared well in 2008. I'm a little skeptical about this, since with the diminishing pages of classified ads and news that some companies are freeze hiring... I wouldn't be surprise if one day we'll hear news that top companies are laying off people because of the global recession (f*** you, Bush!).

So why does this affect me so much? I need the classified ads to find something: a property to lease, and a new job to apply to. If there's only a few pages of classified ads, well there won't be much choices of things to look for, right?