Absolutely correct. The towns that survive on the automobile industry are bad.

The economic down turn has not affected me.

lol if your going to give away a trillion dollars to the corporate equivalent of a dopey 14 year old... (GM) then yeah... you better be making some substantial cash :haha:

Yes it has. Because of the downturn, my employer whom I have been with for over 5 years, has done an across the board, every person from the CEO down, salary cut of 6.5%. We have also "downsized" twice, for a total of about 75 people, consolidated specific departments (resulting in less cost but also less efficiency/productivity), as well as currently have a hiring freeze in place.

My lady also makes 15% less than she used to due to her employer being forced to cut costs/benefits.

We have had to delay the purchase of a larger home due to the economy.

I am not complaining, we each have times where things are good or bad. The fact is this is turning into an opportunity IF things continue as they are, because it is often said that necessity is the mother of all invention.

One good thing Capthap...you are both still working. Thats all that matters at the moment. It will get better. :yeah:

some of the very reasons i left my previous employer.

not only was the work environment slightly toxic to begin with, but with fleet reduction, staffing displacements, furloughs etc it was not worth it for me to commute to a job site that was on the other side of the country - or move to that location for what would be less money.

so i respectfully resigned and followed my current venture.

It's a pity you have to delay Hap. It's a buyers market right now.

Its all good guys. Thanks for the words of support. Don't misunderstand, I am not negative about it. Life throws you curves, but sometimes that makes the drive fun!

While we are delaying a purchase on the home for now, the delay is actually allowing us to expand our search. The kids get to stay in school until the summer of next year, and in the meantime we can also consider new construction, which I would like since it would allow me to customize some things immediately.

Considering things have been going down-hill since late 2007, I've been out of stable full-time work for about 12-18 months now.
I was made redundant from full-time employment (of 5 years) as a CAD draughtsman in october 2007. During 2008 I had several temp CAD jobs ranging in duration from 12 weeks to 3 weeks.
Since the end of 2008 there has been FA work in what I'm qualified in.
For 2009, I've had a couple of crappy warehousing jobs and am currently employed (haha - I've yet to have a day's work out of the company yet) as a trade plate driver.
Of all the job applications I have sent out in the last year, I've had maybe 3 replies, mainly detailing how I've not been successful this time etc etc.

There's not even any of the little jobs that were ten a penny this time a year or so back; the jokecentre (jobcentre) is crammed to bursting and regardless of how broad your skills or your search criteria are, the only thing you get out of the jokecentre staff is "you'll have to broaden your options for work..." damn automatons. If you ask for 'training' you are told there's no money for anything. So you're stuffed.

The construction industry here is ****ed, pure and simple. And my career (such as it is) has followed suit.
My other half has escaped the first round of redundancies at her place, I suppose being an archaeologist specialising in the study of human bones/remains is not likely to be much over-subscribed. But nothing is certain income-wise.

We are facing worse to come I reckon.

As some here will know from my periodic outbursts of incensed bile, directed towards the banking system and our gloriously facile and oblivious leaders, that I'm pretty pissed at being subjected to the consequences of recession and now personal debt which had nothing to do with me whatsoever thank you very much. I had my little bubble of modest living, free of debt where financial responsibilities were kept under strict control. I'm somewhat embittered that I was careful with my money/credit but have none the less paid the price for somebody else's spendthrift attitude - it makes a mockery of not spending what I didn't have to begin with! I might as well jumped on the gravy train and spent loads of cash that wasn't mine in the first place; at least I'd have had a better standard of living until the bubble burst, and would then have had a few more assets to sell to keep a roof over head.
:mad: :damn:

Not really,but over here they are posponing big financial decisions so the overall effect will be felt much later..kind of like in the states,make a mess of the countries finances and leave the rubble to the next government..

And we have some spare gas to sell to the highest bidder when the need arises so i guess we are ok,other european countries have much bigger problems and usually we are the first country to stabilize,and that is happening right now,the worst is past us and for instance Germany is recovering too.

My comment about the Fed's making money meant they are printing more they aint earning it. Indeed tax revenues are at a record low.

I also work in the construction industry. I ask every salesman, representative, architect, contractor, etc. I see "Hows buisness".

To a man they just shake their head and relate storys about downsizing layoffs and just lack of work.

I can say that here in Connecticut, the downturn has REALLY hit hard (mostly for those of the middle class and lower. Connecticut pretty much has two kinds of jobs available that aren't retail, Insurance and insurance. There used to be manufacturing, but almost all the manufacturers either closed their doors and moved overseas or are trying to.
I ended up with a genetic health dissorder that rendered me dissabled two years ago which has screwed my life and now I make only a quarter of what I used to. My wife, who worked in insurance got laid off after 10 years of service along with a HUGE portion of the whole Connecticut insurance industry. Insurance companies all over Connecticut are ADVERTISING for workers, but they are only HIREING temps ! So my wife is now stuck as a temp and every time she goes for a job interview, there's at least 20 other people trying for the same job, or they don't like the fact that she has 10 years of experience (They say "OVERQUALIFIED" a lot which is bullcrap).
She says that right now, where the offices used to be all full time workers are all now 90% temps that the companies don't have to pay health insurance for and pay pennies for wages. We just got this nice apartment a few years back, and now, because of all this, we're going to have to dump it and move to a smaller/cheaper place.
I don't see a light at the end of the tunnel for the blue collar or lower class workers at all for the near future. Those classes ALWAYS had trouble here in this state, and now, they're REALLY having problems.

BUT BUT BUT.....

I thought the Savior, his Excellency Barack Obama was going to make sure no one lost their home due to this economic downturn?????

Perhaps you need to shoot him an email and let him know that somehow you have slipped through the cracks.

Seriously - my thoughts and prayers will include you my friend. It is never easy, and I will hope for a breakthrough for you and your wife.

EDIT - corrected shoot him an email - it initially was "shoot him and email" and I don't need any more secret service people knocking on my door.

So frickin amazing. How about the republican azzhole who caused the whole mess in the first place? Nobody would need a "savior" if the previous Republican administration didn't f' things up as bad as they did.

It's just amazing how idiots shift the blame because the incoming president can't fix the previous administration's pile of sh1t they left behind.

Thankfully Australia has been somewhat sheltered from the full effects of the storm. I manage a fruit and veg operation that has a turnover of around $35,000 a week; at the worst point, and I think winter sales trends also had something to do with it, we suffered weeks as low as $28,000, but we're back to 35 grand weeks already.

When the economy goes to hell, I guess people still have to eat. That's one advantage of being in this business (plus the fitness that comes from lugging crates of spuds around all day).

Also, as a renter it was quite nice that mortgage interest rates went down so no chance of the rent increasing!

My prayers for all those who are having very difficult times :(