I'm in the Cognitive Neurosciences, it is my impression that there are a LOT more top-notch jobs this year than last. These span social, developmental and cognitive fields. Last year was so bad, that many high caliber applicants did not find positions and were forced to extend their post-docs. This was in part enabled by the stimulus $. The result is that this year, although there are more jobs, there are more high caliber applicants. Personally, I know 5 world-class postdocs from the SAME lab that will all be applying for the same jobs. Depending on your field, I suspect that you can count on most short-list applicants having 10+ pubs/ top letters of rec and a track record of $. The absolute cream will have one of the NIH K awards allowing them to bring RO1 type $ along with them.
The good news is that there are more jobs this year, so submit the best application you can and be patient… all the searches will be complete and offers made by the end of April. Until then, all you can really do is get more papers out, get more $ and network any which way you can.
Good luck everyone!