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01/14/2009 09:15:05 AM · #1 |
I am just curious.
Think of me as the cat, and I am just dying to know.
First, and explanation.
My sisters contract at her school will not be re-uped in June due to the economy.
Many on my neighbors have been layed off due to the economy.
I am not working because of SAG playing rich kid games.
My question is this.
Are you affected by the economy or SAG as well? How?
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01/14/2009 09:24:20 AM · #2 |
Yes, the negative spiral of perspective has slightly affected me. I've been out of work since December 5, but hopefully that will change today.
If you look around the past 6-8 months have been fine. People have been eating out, shopping, spending, seeing movies, etc just fine... but I bet if you had asked them, they would say the economy is bad -- why? Because they keep getting TOLD the economy is bad.
So now, the self-fulfilling prophecy is coming to pass. Enough people bought the media reports and it's really starting to happen, because businesses are being affected, laying off workers, and then economy is really starting to take a hit.
However, I think things will improve in a couple of weeks as Bush leaves office and the media have lost their target and can thus report the good economic news that has been so plentiful but underreported.
These little flare-ups we've had before, but never has the media been so intent on fanning the embers into a raging fire as they were this election cycle.
Message edited by author 2009-01-14 09:24:31. |
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01/14/2009 09:27:02 AM · #3 |
| I'm out of work at the end of this month. As well as the rest of editorial. |
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01/14/2009 09:31:13 AM · #4 |
I seem to have a stable job and am not immediately affected. Our sales are not what we would like them to be of course, but we also make a lot from the service and support of products that are already out there. I think our salespeople are under more pressure than the technical side of the house.
I am actually doing a little better, as I signed a gas lease a few weeks before the economy tanked and the speculators with their money went away. The gas company honored the contract and I was able to pay off my second mortgage. I am now as close to debt free as I have been in decades. (Yay!) |
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01/14/2009 09:33:31 AM · #5 |
Sorry...SAG is for Screen Actors Guild, (Stupid And Greedy).
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01/14/2009 09:39:35 AM · #6 |
just at the moment standing back & watching it ..
several friends have been let go from other positions
we lost 10% of our workers in Nov.
looking at ways to spend less
(i was thinking of going part-time but have pulled back from that plan / try to accumulate $ while i can ) |
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01/14/2009 09:41:52 AM · #7 |
Yes!
It hit me early on (for Canada) as exploration is an extremely economy-sensitive business.
My hours were cut to two days a week back in October, not enough to pay the bills. My family is partly getting by on a second mortgage right now.
But I've been through this all twice before, in the early 90's recession just after I graduated, and the late 90's metals crash. The big difference for me is that the number of holes in my money bucket has increased, so it's tougher to prevent it from draining.
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01/14/2009 09:46:14 AM · #8 |
I have a back up plan.
Fortunetly, I JUST got my Class A drivers license. I can drive a tractor and trailor, air breaks, truck.
I don't want to be a truck driver, but, SAG is forcing me to be flexable.
SAG + economey + mom doesn't work = scary.
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01/14/2009 10:05:34 AM · #9 |
I heard on the news that my company is planning more layoffs. Just over a year ago there were 5 of us on my team. We're now down to 3. Plus we're getting more work. Rumor has it, they want us at 2 per shift. Everything is going to Brazil and India. I hardly talk with Americans, anymore.
I'm single, no kids, and have money saved. So if I lose my job, I'll be good for about 3 months. But my fallback is going to work up in the casinos. Times are tough up there (Black Hawk and Central City), as well. But they just voted to raise the limits to $100 and add Roulette and Craps. That will bring some more people up, and hopefully more money. Rich people still like to gamble. |
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01/14/2009 10:13:39 AM · #10 |
No, we have a full order portfolio well into 2009. We need 10 skilled employees to be able to do all the work we have at the moment. While the 2nd part of 2009 might be less, our customers are in interesting projects and we are their most reliable partner. And I am the one and only administrator here, so when they fire me, nobody gets paid. :)
My girlfriend has been assured that she will keep her job although her shop is making a loss. The fortunate thing is that she is A) Very good and B) In a shop that when closed would be a dent in the image of the main company. However, she has to fire 2 employees. The daughter of another employee has been fired, two husbands of others have been fired. The mother of a close friend has been fired. And so on...
I felt the effect of this crisis the most when I ordered a beer last friday and was told that there was none. The bar had no cash to buy a new barrel... If you paid upfront they could run to the supermarket to buy a bottle of coke if you wanted cola... When I went out of there later that evening like a drunken sailor I think they had enough cash to buy a new barrel though. :)
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01/14/2009 10:17:35 AM · #11 |
Originally posted by Azrifel:
No, we have a full order portfolio well into 2009. We need 10 skilled employees to be able to do all the work we have at the moment. While the 2nd part of 2009 might be less, our customers are in interesting projects and we are their most reliable partner. And I am the one and only administrator here, so when they fire me, nobody gets paid. :)
My girlfriend has been assured that she will keep her job although her shop is making a loss. The fortunate thing is that she is A) Very good and B) In a shop that when closed would be a dent in the image of the main company. However, she has to fire 2 employees. The daughter of another employee has been fired, two husbands of others have been fired. The mother of a close friend has been fired. And so on...
I felt the effect of this crisis the most when I ordered a beer last friday and was told that there was none. The bar had no cash to buy a new barrel... If you paid upfront they could run to the supermarket to buy a bottle of coke if you wanted cola... When I went out of there later that evening like a drunken sailor I think they had enough cash to buy a new barrel though. :) |
Glad to see you're doing your part. ;o)
So far I haven't been affected (directly). My brother may be as the section of the company he currently works for may be moving to the states. I doubt, with the current unemployment situation in the states, that they will offer to move Canadian employees south. |
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01/14/2009 10:17:51 AM · #12 |
| My aunt who has owned a beauty salon/spa for the past 30 years is on the verge of bankrupty. No business. My cousin who owns an electrical business is also on the verge of bankrupty. He just got stiffed by two of his largest accounts who filed bankruptcy owing him around 30k, he in turn had to lay off all his employees except 1. My husband hasn't had full time work in over 8 months (he's a carpenter). The company he worked for went bankrupt and out of business. He was doing ok with freelance stuff (2-4 days a week) until the beginning of December when everything dried up completely. He's done one really small job since then. We can't even afford to keep advertising with no calls coming in. I have two family members in foreclosure, and they've owned their homes for many years. It has nothing to do with bad loans, etc., just not being able to pay their bills due to lack of income. My aunt moved in with my sister to try to help her save her home. Her husband had all his overtime taken away due to cut backs, they can no longer pay their mortgage. A lot of people I know have been cut from full time to part time, losing medical benefits. I'm seriously considering moving out of the state of NJ, we just can't afford to live here anymore. |
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01/14/2009 10:23:01 AM · #13 |
I feel it. And I feel it bad. I work as a Vet Tech, and people are spending less on their pets health (yes believe it or not) therefore less income to our clinic. I just got back from out of town, and was told due to the losses, I would have to do without those extra hours during the work week. I'm already part time, and I have been looking for full time for a LONG time. But because of the 'bad economy' no one really is hiring right now.
I've gone from about 1.4k a month part time (which was bad to begin with in this day and time) to about 875$ a month part time.
I have bills to pay damnit. And that dollar raise I just recently got - well it aint helping worth of crap since those extra hours are gone.
We charge 50$ to get a cat spayed. People have the GUTS to say OMG why do you charge so much! It pisses me off. After they hang up and call around, and find out other places charge about 150-250$, they call back wanting to make an appt, after being bitchy about the prices. They dont know how lucky they have it with those prices, while my hours are cut back.
Yes I am a bit bitter at the moment.
THe only consolidation I have is my husband makes pretty good money but we still end up with about 300$ left over a month, with school loan payments, car payments, house payment, utilities, some cash we've been trying to pay off, gas, food and whatever else I cant think of right now. |
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01/14/2009 10:31:14 AM · #14 |
| Hubby and I hit a rough spot there for a while, but we're hanging in there. His brother's weren't so lucky. One lost his business of 6 years, one was laid off. One has had to move his family and pets in with his parents (luckily 4 of his 5 kids are grown up and moved out), the other is slowly depleting his savings account while looking for another job. |
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01/14/2009 10:37:20 AM · #15 |
i'm out of work ( nov this year ). the business i ran ( not owned ) closed due to the owners death in 2007. i took on his load and continued with mine for about a year and half. stressful !
we sold/serviced hot tubs/spas/swimming pools - luxury items - the first things to be scratched off the 'got to have it' list.... sales definately slowed since early 2006 - actually. but winter is always slow - and those in charge of the owners estate didn't want to risk going through winter this year. so six of us were laid off. of course not until we emptied the building and all that fun stuff...
i'm pretty handy though, and have been keeping busy and getting paid doing odd jobs - painting, wall paper, flooring, etc.
and i've actually had some time to do some improvements to our house as well. hopefully to get a better appraisal. we are considering purchasing a third property - even though things are tight right now.
Message edited by author 2009-01-14 10:37:42.
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01/14/2009 10:46:38 AM · #16 |
| Yes, a bit -- we're trying really hard to sell our house so's to help pay off my college (I go to a ridiculously expensive private school) but nobody's buying...despite our house being incredibly gorgeous. My parents have incredibly stable jobs though -- my mom's one of two full-time music professors at Purdue, and my dad is the only guy who does what he does at his work. |
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01/14/2009 10:53:35 AM · #17 |
| Our company has had to cut a couple dozen employees in the last couple of months because the bottom fell out of our sales. We had 2 customers go into bankruptcy that had, in total, half a million left on our AR books owed to us. In order not to have to let anyone go I cut my teams hours down to 4-8 hour days which basically saved our department one whole body. Out of 5 Executives we are now down to 2. |
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01/14/2009 12:16:16 PM · #18 |
My husband has been layed off for 3 months now and will finally go back to work next week. He works for a company that specializes mainly in old home restoration...so work usually gets slow around Christmas anyway, but this was ridiculous and scary. This latest project was delayed due to the homeowner having problems with an "approved" loan through one of the larger nationwide banks. The bank basically backed out after approving the loan. The homeowners decided to go with a regional bank and got their loan.
Things are not good in the Knoxville area. Much of the manufacturing is automotive based, also many boat builders. Nearly all have cut way back or have been shut down till this week. The clothing retailer "Goody's" is based in Knoxville and is shutting down completely. Even Alcoa is laying off around 500 people. And the little town I live in, Maryville, is the home base for Ruby Tuesday's restaurants, and are closing around 70 restaurants nationwide this years. If they go out of business, the downtown will be nearly empty. There are many houses for sale, or rent because they can't be sold. My neighbor took her house off the market because no one even looked at it for 3 months.
But honestly, much of the retail and restaurant industry needs a good "forest fire"...some of the retailers that have choked out the new growth need to go away to allow the fresh and interesting to flourish. If funds are tighter, people don't want junk. At least I don't. I will spend more for quality, and frankly few retailers are not offering this. And people want good customer service, something that has also been severely lacking in many of these places. I suppose it's all a game of survival of the fittest...we shall see what's left standing when it's all said and done. |
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01/14/2009 12:32:32 PM · #19 |
Originally posted by HawkeyeLonewolf:
Yes, the negative spiral of perspective has slightly affected me. I've been out of work since December 5, but hopefully that will change today.
If you look around the past 6-8 months have been fine. People have been eating out, shopping, spending, seeing movies, etc just fine... but I bet if you had asked them, they would say the economy is bad -- why? Because they keep getting TOLD the economy is bad.
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Actually I've been affected for the past 7 years and it's getting progressively worse. I had the misfortune of choosing manufacturing as my career. Our govt. has been trying to do away with this aspect of our economy for a long time. They've been very successful. I hope to turn the global warming hype against them and fuel a resurgence in the sector. Already it doesn't make sense to have large, heavy items made over seas and shipped here. I'd like that trend to continue for even smaller sized items. Cost of labor shouldn't be the deciding factor any more. Customer and raw material location should be much more important.
And Wolfie boy, the economy is doing quite bad, and it's not just because of negative publicity. And the effect you mention is mainly prominent during the recovery phase. I think we've got a least another year before we leave the tanking phase. We've not hit the bottom yet.
Bush times are not over yet. (kinda like Hoover times) |
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01/14/2009 12:35:31 PM · #20 |
Originally posted by avalanche1030:
Out of 5 Executives we are now down to 2. |
With that change alone there should be many improvements at your place. :) |
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01/14/2009 12:41:18 PM · #21 |
Wellllll. . . .this thread is scary. I am so sorry for the ones of you who are out of work. That happened to us once years ago, and I will never forget the fear and stress.
I am at a very stable job that I am not happy at (at ALL), and am trying to make strides to strike out on my own in photography. We have my husband's salary, but I would really need to make steady money to make it work. I won't do anything stupid and quit before I'm established and feel like we're okay -- but I am doing some heavy duty praying -- hoping that the one I look to as my provider can come thru for us even in a tough economy.
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01/14/2009 12:53:44 PM · #22 |
I was informed Monday that I will be laid off Friday. 14 years to the date. I was hired Jan. 16th 1995.
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01/14/2009 12:58:21 PM · #23 |
| I'm very, very lucky. We're a small company and the owners have been very good about planning for the future and downturns like this. Also, the businesses we work with (mostly in the bicycle industry) were experiencing extra sales as a result of high gas prices. They are being hurt by the lower gas prices now. |
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01/14/2009 01:14:25 PM · #24 |
I work in engineering for an automotive supplier...I haven't been laid off...yet.
I'm polishing my resume and making sure to stay in touch with my external contacts. Unfortunately, Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in tha nation and it's expected to increase to 15% or more in '09. There simply aren't any jobs out there. As a barometer, the job listings in my local paper have typically occupied about 4 full pages. Now, they're down to less than half a page. Local job listings online are similarly sparse. There just aren't any job openings in any sector
If I do get laid off, I have some savings, so I'll be OK for a while, but most of what I did have saved went to my ex in the divorce. Which brings up another issue; my kids. I have joint custody with my ex and they spend about half the time with me and half with her. If I have to move to get work...well...I guess my kids will effectively lose their dad in the deal. I try not to think about that. |
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01/14/2009 01:20:41 PM · #25 |
Yep, I've been effected, with both of my jobs. I work in the automotive industry(Ford dealership) we are down to a min crew, and have been working less and less hours since Aug of last year. The newspaper I work for has seen advertising $$$ drop as well, making the paper smaller each week, which in turn makes less room for photographs and less for assignments. The news dept to help cut costs has also had reporters carrying digicams with them to shoot photos that would normally have gotten a photographer an assignment. I dont care what anyone tells you, times are tough, and from where I'm standing they are going to get tougher for quite some time before they get better. My nest egg has shrunken to the point its getting scary. Luckily I've worked myself to where I am getting out of debt just as the $$$ may run out. So as long as I can make it to that point I'll be alright. If not well I guess I'll be forced to sell my body on the street, and I dont think you people want to see that happen.
Matt
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