How the Economic Crisis/Recession has Affected Your Job and Your Employer

[rj1]

Fortunately my company is in pretty good shape. I work in the manufacturing sector for a corporation in the U.S. and we have benefitted from being cash rich and competitors getting out of some of our business segments and we are getting their customers. We've had some down days at my facility and 4-day work weeks due to demand, no real layoffs yet. It wouldn't surprise me if some of our contract labor is let go soon.

My job personally is safe.

[roxtar]

Re: How the Economic Crisis/Recession has Affected Your Job and Your Employer

I'm seriously considering picking up a job on the weekends. From what I know my employer is doing ok financially, but when the layoffs come I hope I'm not one of the expendable ones.


Does working your arse off and not being the highest payed guy on the staff count for anything any more?:confused:

[*T*]

Re: How the Economic Crisis/Recession has Affected Your Job and Your Employer

I work for a UK university and my contract expires in October. I am now looking for funding... Faculty here should be OK but there are rumours of US faculty being laid off as states in the US tighten spending.

[Chomsky]

Re: How the Economic Crisis/Recession has Affected Your Job and Your Employer

I work for a fine art dealer. Business has been terrible, and the bellwether auctions in our field are today and tomorrow. It's a small company, but large for a gallery, with a lot of overhead. That said, the business's finances are clean, no debt. The owner also is loath to trim staff; in the 2001-02 recession no one was laid off, but no one got raises or bonuses either.

[Wild Style]

Re: How the Economic Crisis/Recession has Affected Your Job and Your Employer

I work for a UK university and my contract expires in October. I am now looking for funding... Faculty here should be OK but there are rumours of US faculty being laid off as states in the US tighten spending.

I work at a major university in the states. A dean told me it is the worst they have seen it financially at the university since they started here. There are rumors that one of the larger colleges at the university will be laying people off next year. They are currently doing things that will save them money during holidays. Like shutting the university down for a week here, half day there etc.

Students are no longer getting as much money as they once did for student loan, so I figure that's going to start to hurt after awhile. For example, if a student goes full time in masters they cant work. So they generally use part of their loan to live. Well, if that dries up (which it has) then they are going to start dropping out or going to cheaper schools. I figure it will be the cheaper school route or schools that offer tuition assistance before dropping out. I mean, where are these people going to go find jobs at in this economy?

Have not heard any rumors of faculty layoffs yet. I think they will cut staff jobs at my university before even thinking about touching faculty. One university near us is cutting its work force by 20% and they have frozen raises until 2011 or 2012, I forget which. They also went to four day work weeks over the summer. I think we will be doing the same next year.

Next year is going to be interesting.

*PS*

Endowment, state government funding and donations are WAY and I mean WAY down. Unfortunately the school I work for counts on this heavily. Also, student body growth is down pretty significantly as well.

[Penguin]

Re: How the Economic Crisis/Recession has Affected Your Job and Your Employer

I work in the states for a NASCAR race team in the position of research engineer. Things are bad and a lot of folks have been laid off already. Several teams have shut down, others have merged, and some are limping through the off-season looking for sponsorship.

In a way a thoroughly unnecessary industry like racing is among the first to take a hit as sponsors and fans cut frivolous expenditures. OTOH there is also an escapist quality to sports that will keep the doors open in very tough economic times.... even if in a more modest form.

Will

[Techdread]

Re: How the Economic Crisis/Recession has Affected Your Job and Your Employer

I'm employed as a software engineer for a small software house.
Business has not dropped off much.

However management has cancelled a large project they were going to outsource to India (could not raise the funds) and moved it in house More work for me.

I still think my job is not safe as orders could dive at any moment.
The boss joked we could all lose our jobs if the economic crises carries on next year.:eek:

I have been preparing for this crisis for a couple of years thanks to sites like this so hopefully a loss of a job won't be too life changing.

[flintlock]

Re: How the Economic Crisis/Recession has Affected Your Job and Your Employer

I own a small electrical service company. We don't do new construction so that collapse didn't really affect us directly. I was down to one employee working part time, and finally just had to let him go . Business is off probably 60% from a year ago. A lot of my work had to do with home improvements, and I'm sure the fact people's homes are losing value meant they didn't want to keep sinking money into them. I'm left doing mostly repairs( not very lucrative if you are honest) and the occasional nice job for some wealthy customer. Some people still are spending. Installed THREE flat screen TVs OUTSIDE for one guy recently. This is to go with the other 10 inside the house. lol.

I feared that all the electricians who had been doing new construction would eat into my business, but that hasn't really been a problem. I think most of them just completely folded. So with me, I don't get nearly as many calls, but I almost always get the job when I do. Most of my competition have gone out of business I guess. One advantage of staying small with low overhead.

I have noticed there's a handyman on every corner these days willing to attempt doing electrical work for $15 hour. These are the guys who lost their jobs in home construction and couldn't get on at Home Depot.

I was talking to a painter buddy on a job last month and he said he hadn't had a call in six weeks. So I hired him to paint my home exterior to help him out, even though I really can't afford it right now. He had to let all his people go, so he's painting it by himself. The home improvement industry is really hurting these days.

[BiscayneSunrise]

Re: How the Economic Crisis/Recession has Affected Your Job and Your Employer

Not a scientific survey but just anecdotal evidence gathered from friends and
"man on the street" interviews.

Airlines: They seemed to have already made the tough choices with all their Ch 11's over the past few years and have the flexibility to cut capacity rather easily. More layoffs will likely come but they seem out of the woods.

Air Charter: Down 40% or more.

Boat industry: Sales very weak but people at the very high end (superyachts) of the market still bragging about good business. Boat & fishing charter business fell off a cliff. One friend who owns a yacht keeps it parked right now. he can afford to operate it but given that he is laying off people from his business, he feels it looks bad to go yachting.

Construction: Don't ask.

Consumer electronics: Local stores are not hiring extra Christmas help but sales relatively firm.

Hotels: They are practically giving away rooms. Bid your own price on priceline routinely gets 80% discount of rack rate in certain markets.

IT: Lots of layman need help with their computers, IT support guys are busy.

Law firms: firms associated with FIRE laying off staff. You'd think an increase in bankruptcy filings would offset decreases in other areas.

Real Estate: Most brokers talking their book. One very large broker told me over cocktails last week, that the market is "going to turn on a dime" any day now. Didn't have the heart to tell him otherwise but I did anyway. More and more 'for sale" signs appear every day even in the high end neighborhoods. there are'nt enough buyers out there to even handle the normal life event sort of sellers. It is disheartening to drive along the beach and see miles of empty luxury condos. South Florida has always been a capital haven for some wealthy south Americans to hide money from people like Hugo Chavez. There is still some of that but hardly enough to move the needle anymore.

Re-Habs/Conservation: A friend in the business of converting commercial buildings to modern energy efficient standards is turning away business. (When energy costs peaked over the summer he said his customers were getting 100% ROI in 6 months, now with lower energy costs, maybe he'll lose some business)

Tourism: When passing along the usual tourist haunts here it seems a bit quieter than usual but the season hasn't started in earnest yet.

[tsetsefly]

Re: How the Economic Crisis/Recession has Affected Your Job and Your Employer

Real Estate: Most brokers talking their book. One very large broker told me over cocktails last week, that the market is "going to turn on a dime" any day now. Didn't have the heart to tell him otherwise but I did anyway. More and more 'for sale" signs appear every day even in the high end neighborhoods. there are'nt enough buyers out there to even handle the normal life event sort of sellers. It is disheartening to drive along the beach and see miles of empty luxury condos. South Florida has always been a capital haven for some wealthy south Americans to hide money from people like Hugo Chavez. There is still some of that but hardly enough to move the needle anymore.

I have family that works in construction and real estate, in a market where prices had actually held for the past year but now have started to see a slow decrease.
They know it wont get better any time soon and so do most in construction but the people they talk to who say, 09 will be better are all in loans or real estate...

[crashandburn]

Re: How the Economic Crisis/Recession has Affected Your Job and Your Employer

I'm the wife of a developer.... need I say more?

I've decided to delve into this world that I otherwise didn't know anything about and I really like what I learn at this website about finances, bubbles, etc., although admittedly a few years too late.

Our house is on the market, and business is on the brink of bankruptcy. Times are scary. We've been living a great life with a great lifestyle forever. This was a tidal wave and we were caught in the perfect storm. I feel like my kids and I are the collateral damage. Luckily we are young enough to rebuild and not ever make the same mistakes again. I could have easily bailed out on my husband in these times - a lot of anger/denial/etc. - but we came together and will grow smarter through it. I'm now a reluctant partner in the developing business. Our goal is to stay in the game in some way through this.

[swgprop]

Re: How the Economic Crisis/Recession has Affected Your Job and Your Employer

I work in IT for a loan servicing company. We service sub prime, Alt A, Option ARMs - the worst of the worst.

We were never an origination shop, thus when the sub prime market imploded we were not greatly impacted, except that the servicing packages we formerly bid on no longer exist. That equates to a runoff in the portfolio.

The emphasis of the operation has shifted from heavy collections to heavy loan modification work.

I'd say the outlook for the company is tentative. There may be opportunities that arise from the failure of other firms. That's the good thing about the servicing business - it doesn't disappear, somebody's got to do it. We are a wholly owned subsidiary of a large financial player so our future is also subject to how they weather the storm. So far so good.

Personally if the operation shuts down tomorrow I've got enough reserves to stay comfortable for a couple of years, longer if I really hunkered down (quit paying the mortgage and live "free" for a year+, etc.)

[dbarberic]

Re: How the Economic Crisis/Recession has Affected Your Job and Your Employer

I work for a big-4 audit/tax/and consulting firm on the consulting side primarly in the area of the finance function. Our "pipeline" of future work in the midwest is very slim. Some of the worse I've seen in my 10+ years in the business. Word is that the Southwest is still doing well due to residual effects of high energy prices months ago. The Southeast is near similar pain to the midwest.

We had slim layoffs during the middle of summer and just completed layoffs of 400 people two weeks ago.

The month between Thanksgiving and New Years is typically a very slow time in our business. Very few decisions are made to start new projects until the new year. We have some RFPs that we are responding to, but most will not start till 2009. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we are able to close some and start working again in January.

In addition, I'm prepping my resume and reconnecting to old contacts.

[RebbePete]

Re: How the Economic Crisis/Recession has Affected Your Job and Your Employer

I work for a large defense contractor in the US. So far, business is booming. Obama is still a question mark, but he doesn't seem to be as anti-military now as he appeared during the campaign. In any case, I don't work on big ticket defense systems but on little quick reaction projects that look like they're safe. One good thing about contracting with the US Federal Government is that the contracts are generally good for at least a year, so my department is funded through 2009.

Defense firms are still hiring like crazy. My friends and I have gotten calls from other contractors trying to convince us to jump over to their firm.

[mikedev10]

Re: How the Economic Crisis/Recession has Affected Your Job and Your Employer

i'm an IT consultant and live in one of the top 50 richest counties in the US; lake county il (faw nw chi burbs). some areas have more foreclosing homes but most don't seem that bad. big mall by me still seems pretty busy. couple of the circuit cities closing are around here. my consulting company employs ~100 in chicago and was born during the 2001 recession. october was our best month yet. i'm contracted through the end of the year and think i will be kept into the next.

friends seem to be doing ok. brother works at a metal fabrication place, biz seems to be ok. has made safes and slot machine enclosures. uncle works at some kind of plant, not sure what they make. some steel stuff. polish guys in warehouse went from OT available to no OT and now down to 32 hours a week. he seems to feel ok but my aunt is worried. buddy's dad owns an injection mold shop. asked buddy how the shop was going and he said his dad was still doing pretty well.