Medium-term effects of undersized analyst class?

For more experienced people who have been through droughts in the past, can anyone comment on the medium-term effects of joining an undersized analyst class (say, 50 incoming first years as opposed to the typical 100). If work were to pick up suddenly, does this relay to either being heavily overworked or very-well compensated (less people with whom to split the workload/bonus pool) - or do banks pick up more lateral/other hires in the case of a rebound?

Any comments regarding post-analyst recruiting for various desired positions, assuming an economic rebound? With Bear/LEH/MER gone (and C/UBS on the cusp of disappearing), and the rest of the bulges halving their incoming classes, an analyst from one of the healthier banks could potentially be competing against 200 similarly qualified candidates as opposed to ~1000.

I'm curious what experienced professionals think, assuming that our economy sees a V-shaped or U-shaped recovery, even though I think we're likely to stagnate in an L-shaped cycle.