Economy - how has it affected your career/employer?

We're all feeling the pinch just about everywhere..... What or how has the economy affected your career or your employer in terms of production, service, sales or whatever it is that you do?

Since I work in the printing business, we produce lots of magazines & catalogs that get mailed through-out. Our *customers* are feeling losses in subscribers & their reducing page counts in their magazines/catalogs (to save $$).

We rely on the postal system very heavily. Postal rates (bulk) have gone up & up, Postal regulations are getting tighter and tighter, those regulations are being enforced strictly and it's much easier to get hit with fines (big fines).

This is our busy season - yet we're not nearly as busy as we usually are at this time. Our company has gone through a wave of layoffs again. They normally do this once a year anyway. This year...it's happened a few times already. They've started laying off hourly employees (office people) - which is usually very rare. I'm probably in one of the safest jobs to be in that I'm on the production floor and work on the equipment - but nobody is truely safe.

That's what I've been seeing from my small part of the world. There's probably a lot more going on that I'm totally unaware of (and probably don't wanna know).

 

I'm out of work almost 4 months now...need I say more?

I "was" an IT project manager in a major law firm in Manhattan. I started to work right out of high school and never went to college. Worked my way up the ladder to my last job but now, because I don't have a piece of paper that says "BS", they don't even want to read my resume.

 

I can't lose money I don't have......same deal with a job.

 

My job seems to be secure for now.I work for a large chemical company, and they are spending millions upgrading plants all over North America. My 401K has taken a pretty good hit lately. I'm 52 and had always said I would retire before I was 60, but now I really doubt that will happen.

 

Working for the military has it's benefits- I know I'll have a job for a while- Good Bad or Otherwise-Signing a contract is a bane and a boon. But watching the work I've done to save for retirement and making the payments on the things I owe is an eye opener.

I've watched alot of my friends from high school and college that have been in a bad way for a while now...and there is no real end in sight either.

 

Although I retired a year or so ago, I hear the newspaper where I worked has slashed raises and 'played around' with the health benny. Former fellow employees are not happy. There is talk of no raises in 09. (A friend calls with updates to remind me I did the right thing!)...for once! LOL.

 

^^ funny, i work on yachts for a living and seems that we are still pretty busy. the smaller 52' and under boats have slowed down in production but the 54" and above are still selling really well. but then again i guess it all comes to do to how much money you have...

 

I was in the design-build-land developing industry and sold my business just before the s**t hit the fan. It hit a few years ago but has taken the govt. awhile to figure it out. Because of the downturn, the company has been unable to make full payments to me as per our contract...bummer!!

I wish the best through these times for all you younger folk, you've never had the experience of an economic recession. I still have SS and the VA at least, and my wife is a dear, she's younger than me (a hottie) and still works.

 

I live in Alberta Canada and we are not feeling the pinch like you guys are south of our border, but it is coming. New housing starts are down 50% from last year and the real estate market is flat. Still lots of commercial construction happening though. Funny how when things are good it is like being drunk, you never think of the hangover the next day!

 

Raise? What's that?

The only form of raises that we get aren't *performance* related. We'll get an 'infation' related pay increase that everyone gets. Last year was 2% of your yearly income. Hell - the way this economy is going, we should see a good hefty inflation increase this year!! Yeah right.....I'll believe that when I see it. It's better than nothing. Everyone talks about wanting to get outta this place....but in reality, you'll be moving yourself yet another company that will eventually do the same.

MzTazComa,
I have a college degree, and I work in a factory!! I'm not even doing what I went to school for. Having a college degree doesn't mean squat. Employers use that as an excuse when they can't come up with a ligitimate one.

 

the airforce is out of gas...

 

I live on the Northcoast of BC and I work in the forest industry as a bucker and I've already been laid-off 4 times this year because the lumber markets aren't doing as well as they could. Probably has a lot to do with the housing situation down there in the states 'cause you guy's were primary buyers of our Canadian lumber. The real crappy thing is that the majority of the island I live on works in the forest industry and Western Forest Products is shutting us all down in a month for who knows how long!

 

I started with 13 engineers at our location. Last December layoffs had us @ 3 pulling the same workload. Last month, I was cut loose after 30 yrs of service. Now they have 2.
Corporate loyalty does not mean shit anymore... moral learned? If you can screw your company... just do it before they do it to you!

 

I work for a company that makes generators and for a while thing were looking really bleak.
The past 4 months have been really good for us though. Sales have been way up due to all the hurricanes, so Ive been working a lot of overtime.
Im trying to be careful how I spend my money though. Im enjoying all the overtime now, but Im working to pay off as much debt as I can, so that if things get slow again I wont have to worry as much about money.

 

well, apparently, there won't be a drop in production, because when you are in the health care field, you really don't worry about job loss, just how busy it gets. I need to look at my investments, what is left of them anyway. I ahve said it before and I will say it again, health care and law enforcement are two jobs that will always have a calling, because there will always be crime, and there will always be sick people.