Recession Salary Negotiation

This is an excellent article.  One thing still makes sense to me and that's asking if a salary offer is negotiable before making a counter-offer.  Presuming that an initial offer is negotiable has the potential to be a serious mistake - particularly if it's not!  But, like always, the job seeker needs to be prepared, not only in terms of what salary range will be proposed as a counter-offer and what the candidate can bring to the job that will make it worth more to the employer.  My recommendation is never to give the impression that you're saying, "I should be paid more because I'm worth it," nearly as much as it should be, "The job you want to fill will have more value to you because of the qualifications I can bring to it."  The message is fundamentally the same, but the approach is totally different.