Nobody in Corporate America wants to go back to 2009, but by one measure companies are there right now.

Based on the 291 companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 that have reported earnings so far — along with estimates for the rest — S&P Capital IQ expects overall profits to decline by half a percent from the same period a year ago. That would be the first time that profits have shrunk since the third quarter of 2009, just after the Great Recession. Analysts are predicting that earnings will shrink 0.3 percent for the third quarter, too.