Are freelancing projects on the decline?

Has anyone noticed this or is it just me? Are freelancing projects on the decline? The decline is on two fronts. First the number of projects on offer seems to have gone down. And secondly, the project budgets have gone down. And I suspect the number of freelancers have also gone up due to recent lay-offs.

Something I have noticed for the past few months is the number of projects posted on sites like oDesk and Guru seem to be declining. Ok, I have not done a scientific observation and anyone can prove me wrong. Maybe it's this whole thing about recession that is so full in the media that is cluttering my mind. But that is what I have been feeling.

Apart from that, even on the projects that I bid on, a lot of them seem to be going to providers who are offering very low rates. Even the trend analysis shown at oDesk seems to suggest that the current going rate for freelancers in a lot fields seems to be around $10/Hour. And here I was quoting $15/Hour. No wonder I was getting rejected.

So to try to prove my theory I quoted a $10/Hour for a project and guess what? I got hired! So now I am working on my $10/hour gig, which is a decline of 50% from what I was expecting. Guess that's what happens when the supply far exceeds the demand!