Job Loss megathread

reply to post by Slazer


There are always exceptions. I mean, unemployment is quite high right now, compared to the last few years, but that doesn't mean everywhere is bad, its just a percentage across the nation. Even if unemployment was up in a state you will still have cities and towns that it is relatively easy to find work.

reply to post by Slazer

I don't know if it's just in Texas, but the job market is good out here. I quit my job about 3 weeks ago, and I applied ONLY online the first week, and had 5 calls, 4 out of those 5 I was offered a job.

I'm no expert on the Texan economy, but I just wonder whether things are relatively smooth due to a concentration of oil-related wealth in the region?

If so, you may not have felt the effects of the slow-down up to now. But look at what is happening to the price of oil:

Oil is a bubble and will drop down to $50

Oil Down to $50?

It was good to hear some good news from you. Not trying to put a dampener on it, just wondering what the context is.



Meantime here's the latest from the UK:

Jobless rise highest for 17 years

The number of people out of work in the UK soared in the three months to August by 164,000 compared to the previous quarter, the biggest rise for 17 years.

The rise took the jobless total to 1.79 million and the rate to 5.7%, up from 5.2% in the previous quarter.

And this is weeks/months before the impact of the current crisis begins to show in the job market...

I work for the union pacifc railroad and I can tell you things are bad. Rail volume is way off. The rail road is the back bone of the county and with the fact tha up has stoped hiering people. The up web site used to have hunderds of job now almost non. there is word that up will cut 5 persent of its work force in the next 6 months

I have several friends in the construction trade,after a few years of booming buisness the smart ones put money away the stupid ones bought new RV's new BMW's all sorts of toys,now construction is pretty much at a stanstill and with glut of new homes on the market and the foreclosures will be a few years till anything changes,on the other hand my kids are in grocery buisness and are thriving

I received a job offer this week from Citigroup for an account executice position. It would pay a handsome base plus sales commission, full benefits etc etc.


The problem is I feel like I would be selling out my principles and my integrity in exchange for a safety net and a guaranteed living.


Right now I am a mortgage broker and run my own little show, but the industry has been dumped on its head and soon it may be impossible to make a living in it. I am straight 100% commission, and with the market as messed up as it is that isnt a good thing to be.

To me working for a company like Citi would be like working for the devil himself. Back to that corporate back biting and nastyness. Back to the grind of having a boss and having to work on the clock. It sounds like pure hell to me, but I would almost be dumb to turn it down. Jobs are scarce in this area and I may live to regret passing it up.

You cant eat principles.....but at the same time working for the evil machine will be a real morale killer. Im really struggling with this decision.

Too bad you cant get paid to screw around on the internet all day

In Indonesia, the current fear concerning job lost is connected to both the potential lost of export revenue to USA & Europe, as well as the possibility of an influx of foreign goods in the face of slumping export.
(Source: www.thejakartapost.com...)

Measures taken so far includes the introduction of nontariff bariers to support domestic manufacturing competitiveness.
(Source: www.thejakartapost.com...)

The 'job loss' effect is also predicted to continue well into the next 2-3 years. The measures taken so far, includes a revision of the 2009 Government Budget Assumptions, which so far has been accepted with 'criticism' from some sectors of the domestic business as well as some economists.
(Source: www.thejakartapost.com...)

P.S.:Forgive me for any inconvinience reading this, incase the sources are not put in correctly in this post.

There have been so many reports of job losses recently and so many other pressing issues (the small matter of the election, etc.) that I thought I'd wait until really big losses were next reported. It is with no satisfaction that I noted the following sad news has appeared today:

Ford reports loss and cuts jobs

And what can you say to this?-

GM warns on liquidity as it reports $2.5 billion loss

General Motors sank to a third-quarter loss of $2.5bn and warned that its liquidity is approaching the minimum level necessary to operate its business...

...GM, together with its smaller Detroit rivals, Ford Motor and Chrysler, is seeking emergency financial support from the US government.

This has also been reported in another thread today:

US jobless rate at 14-yr high

Oh boy, since I started typing this news has appeared:

Corus to cut steel production 30%

Europe's second-largest steel company Corus has announced plans for a 30% cut in production over the next six months due to weakening demand in Europe.

The company, which is owned by India's Tata Steel, will close three blast furnaces in Britain and in the Netherlands for six months.

On Thursday, 400 jobs were cut in its distribution business, which employs 2,400 in the UK and Ireland.

Here's another cheerful one:

More people and firms going bust (UK)

There has been a sharp rise in the number of people and companies being declared insolvent in England and Wales, government figures show.

Individual insolvencies went up by 8.8% in the third quarter of the year to reach 27,087.

Corporate liquidations also went up by 10.5% in the same period, to 4,001...

...The number of firms being liquidated is now up by 26.3% on a year ago.

"The dramatic increase in corporate insolvencies in Q3 2008 continues a trend that we believe will accelerate well into 2009 as companies are hit by the dual blows of a continuing credit squeeze and depressed demand," warned the accountancy firm Ernst & Young.

Many more corporate liquidations appear to be in the pipeline.

The number of receiverships, administrations and company voluntary arrangements, which are normally an attempt to rescue an insolvent business rather than shut it down, rose to 1,444.

That was 65% higher than a year ago, the government's Insolvency Service said.

Anyone can see where this is heading. Whether or not the bank rescues prove effective in the long term, one of the tragic outcomes of the turmoil to date will unquestionably be an unnerving acceleration in job cuts for some considerable time to come, particularly bearing in mind the time lag between company difficulties and people registering as unemployed.

The Aviation industry is also a source of concern:

Jobs risk as airline (BMI) axes flights

Thousands of jobs were lost in September when XL Airlines went belly-up.

Collapse of XL Airways & Industry Outlook

The above article includes this bleak assessment of the outlook:

Even airlines generally regarded as healthy and well-financed are having to cut back. On Thursday, Easyjet said it was shedding up to 60 management and administration jobs at its Luton headquarters.

But for those carriers genuinely in difficulties, there is little but grey skies ahead.

"I think there will be more failures, sadly, in the months to come," JLS Consulting's Mr Strickland told the BBC. "We have a number of weaker players in a highly competitive market."

Even BA has announced a huge drop in profits today:

Profits plunge at British Airways

Half-year profits at British Airways have fallen 91.6%, with the airline blaming "incredibly difficult trading conditions" for the plunge.

BA said pre-tax profit totalled £52m ($81.6m) between April and September, down from £616m a year earlier.

Willie Walsh, BA's chief executive, said the period would "be remembered as one of the bleakest on record".

Alitalia announced it was cutting 3,000 jobs in September, in an effort to save the business.

Clearly social security payouts for the unemployed are going to increase dramatically throughout the industrialized world, leading to an ever-greater need for government borrowing - putting yet further strain on national economies.


[edit to add missing link]

[edit on 7/11/08 by pause4thought]

As some of you know from my past posts, I'm a Labour Relations Manager . . . the hatchet man . . . the arsehole . . . the employment version of the Grim Reaper . . .

Five years ago, we had 400 employees.

As of November 14 (next Friday), we'll be down to 38.

Next week, I've got to show some of our employees the door who've been with us since 1993.

Almost all of them have no transferable skills.

In all my career incarnations, I've never felt as slimy and rotten as I do right now. There are a ton of sleepless nights and I've actually been reduced to tears in a few of these meetings.

I had to 'let go' my best friend about a month ago . . . the guy who sat and had lunch with me every day, the guy who's kids I helped teach to read and watched grow since infants.

I really do hate it.

This is really starting to suck septic tankage.



[edit on 7-11-2008 by GoalPoster]

BT today announced 10,000 job cuts by March 2009:

news.bbc.co.uk...

...News of the cost cuts sent BT shares 7.5% higher...

Oh the joys of the world of finance!

UK unemployment has just reached an 11-year high, rising from 5.4% in the previous quarter to 5.8% at 1,820,000:

news.bbc.co.uk...

Economists say unemployment could top two million within months...

The number of manufacturing jobs fell to 2.86 million, the lowest figure since records began in 1978.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "The signs are that redundancies are coming even faster since these figures were collected. Countering unemployment must be public policy priority number one."

(double post)

[edit on 13/11/08 by pause4thought]

Recession? Jeez, that would be great. What we are witnessing is the realignment of the United States of America to a socialist state where the federals will control your income, savings, and spending.

You'll pay 75% or better in taxes and get to wait in line for hours just to see a dentist who give you "your piece of the pie".