1.9 Million out of work in the US. How are you holding up?

Holding up okay so far. My husband and I both have jobs and can pay the bills, but the restaurant we work at isn't getting as much business and that means our hours get cut. We're getting enough hours to make it though, but in the 13 years or so we've worked there, we've never seen it this slow.

Fortunately, we work in the kitchen so weren't not getting paid $2.13 an hour like the servers who are all complaining they're not getting near enough tables and that the tips they do get are almost always below 15%. Some of the servers have told me they barely make enough to cover their gas and daycare/babysitter.

While I hope the economy will turn around, I don't see how in the world that will happen any time soon.

Originally posted by cornblossom
Fortunately, we work in the kitchen so weren't not getting paid $2.13 an hour like the servers who are all complaining they're not getting near enough tables and that the tips they do get are almost always below 15%. Some of the servers have told me they barely make enough to cover their gas and daycare/babysitter.

Same at ours. We've had a few shifts with ZERO covers. ZERO. Servers went home without a single dollar. More common are days where they're going home with under $20 for a 5 hour shift.

It's awful.

I was laid off the week before Thanksgiving - I work in corporate retail, and they cut 30% of the office.

I immediately filed for Unemployment and posted my resume on every single job board I could find. I spent 8 hours every day looking, sending resumes, writing letters, contacting all the vendors I have worked with etc...

Had an interview yesterday... I am keeping my fingers crossed. There do seem to be a lot of jobs posted, at least in my area.

I will be okay for a month, but after that.. I will be in trouble.

first my husband had his hours cut to 4 days a week, he usually works 5-6 days, now I have been cut one day a week. Right now the effect of that is that we will not be making any larger purchases for Christmas, that will have to wait, we aren't making any travel plans or party plans.

I operate a home based buisness that is online, I also contract work for companies, and have a diverse line of trades that I can do to weather the economic ups and downs, which is good because when one particular field of work slumps, Ive got others that are booming and can easliy shift to those ventures and vice versa.

Key is to diversify and not just be hooked in only one field of trade.



Cheers!!!!

Work for state government. Got an email from our governor about 10 days ago or so saying the state was suspending all hiring of new employee's with the exception of the state run mental hospital.

Also stated that any executive branch positions open were no longer open and hiring for those positions were stopped also.

We have a manufacturing plant that has completely shut down. They told their employee's go home for 30 days and then we'll see where we are at and if we can continue operations. (They made oil filters)

Another business in town that is a welding plant takes contracts from all over the world and builds machine parts pretty much for any machine that is made of metal. They announced that all temp. and part time employee's were laid off. What the rest don't know yet is that when January comes they are deciding whether to start laying off a lot of the full time folks or not. I know this just because my father has worked there over 40 years and is one of the "decision makers" there. Reason is no contracts are coming in right now because of the questionable economy here in the states.

The construction company I use to work for, this summer will be OK because they do the contracts a year in advance with county and state officials but after this summer they may go out of business. They were only about 30 employee's total and were bringing in around 10 million a year before expenses, last time I did their taxes for them. Now maybe nothing by next year.

During the winter all their employee's would work temp winter jobs and now they won't be able to do that either.

There are a lot more businesses going under here but just too many to name at this point.

Car sale lots are dropping like flies, when Domino's Pizza went out of business just the other day here I thought, "Oh wow this is gonna get bad" as I have never heard of a Domino's closing.

reply to post by Darthorious


Our plants have all shut down now. There were 3 cotton and cloth producers, 3 carpet producers, all employed hundreds. They have shut down one at a time until the only 'plant' left in town is a chicken production plant, and it is pretty much run by immigrants. Pirelli opened a plant here, but it only hired like 40, same with all the other smaller plants that have opened here. I thought the medical field jobs were probably safe, but I have freinds in that field that are either laid off now or their hours are cut.

Originally posted by Thelast

Originally posted by Bobbo
I live with my parents. At 24, it's embarassing to say. But I'm able to survive day-to-day a little better that way, while continually trying to find a job.

Considering the state of the economy, that's a matter of practicality.

You shouldn't really be embarrassed, as there are 30-somethings having to move back in as well.

Just a sign of the times.

Agree with that for me I had to move in with my sisters family around 30 because I had some serious health issues and for 2 years was going to the Dr. and had several surgery's. With an average monthly medical bill racking up about 2000-3000 every month. It was either bankruptcy for me or move in with a family member. Sister offered so I took her up on it. I am pretty stubborn and refused to declare medical bankruptcy.

reply to post by Thelast
Husband and I still got our jobs.

Oldest son fired from his company he has worked at for five years. (Had excellent reviews and 15 other people also fired)

His company "fired him" so that they could hire someone else at a lower salary and save money. He was just starting to make enough money where he could pay his morgage and bills on a tight budget.

This is what happens when Republicans / Corporations have the control of the White House for eight years.

People still haven't figured out that when the large corporations fund "donate" millions of dollars towards a presidential candidate, where do you think that candidate's interests are going to lie once they become president? Duh, not with the people but with the companies. America is owned now by companies and not people. WAKE THE F**K UP PEOPLE.

The average American may just now be figuring out that the money isn't trickling uphill: ie: the rich are getting and keeping their money and the rest of us are becoming poorer.

Enron "donated" (buying of power) 1m to GWB GOP and "advised" GWB on energy plan www.ontheissues.org...

The article below was wrtten by Thom Hartmann and was taken from this site: www.commondreams.org... The Dubai Ports World deal is waking Americans up to a painful reality: So-called "conservatives" and "flat world" globalists have bankrupted our nation for their own bag of silver, and in the process are selling off America.

Through a combination of the "Fast Track" authority pushed for by Reagan and GHW Bush, sweetheart trade deals involving "most favored nation status" for dictatorships like China, and Clinton pushing us into NAFTA and the WTO (via GATT), we've abandoned the principles of tariff-based trade that built American industry and kept us strong for over 200 years The old concept was that if there was a dollar's worth of labor in a pair of shoes made in the USA, and somebody wanted to import shoes from China where there may only be ten cents worth of labor in those shoes, we'd level the playing field for labor by putting a 90-cent import tariff on each pair of shoes. Companies could choose to make their products here or overseas, but the ultimate cost of labor would be the same.

Then came the flat-worlders, led by misguided true believers and promoted by multinational corporations. Do away with those tariffs, they said, because they "restrain trade." Let everything in, and tax nothing. The result has been an explosion of cheap goods coming into our nation, and the loss of millions of good manufacturing jobs and thousands of manufacturing companies. Entire industry sectors have been wiped out.

These policies have kneecapped the American middle class. Our nation's largest employer has gone from being the unionized General Motors to the poverty-wages Wal-Mart. Americans have gone from having a net savings rate around 10 percent in the 1970s to a minus .5 percent in 2005 - meaning that they're going into debt or selling off their assets just to maintain their lifestyle

At the same time, federal policy has been to do the same thing at a national level. Because our so-called "free trade" policies have left us with an over $700 billion annual trade deficit, other countries are sitting on huge piles of the dollars we gave them to buy their stuff (via Wal-Mart and other "low cost" retailers). But we no longer manufacture anything they want to buy with those dollars.

So instead of buying our manufactured goods, they are doing what we used to do with Third World nations - they are buying us, the USA, chunk by chunk. In particular, they want to buy things in America that will continue to produce profits, and then to take those profits overseas where they're invested to make other nations strong. The "things" they're buying are, by and large, corporations, utilities, and natural resources

Back in the pre-Reagan days, American companies made profits that were distributed among Americans. They used their profits to build more factories, or diversify into other businesses. The profits stayed in America.

Today, foreigners awash with our consumer dollars are on a two-decades-long buying spree. The UK's BP bought Amoco for $48 billion - now Amoco's profits go to England. Deutsche Telekom bought VoiceStream Wireless, so their profits go to Germany, which is where most of the profits from Random House, Allied Signal, Chrysler, Doubleday, Cyprus Amax's US Coal Mining Operations, GTE/Sylvania, and Westinghouse's Power Generation profits go as well. Ralston Purina's profits go to Switzerland, along with Gerber's; TransAmerica's profits go to The Netherlands, while John Hancock Insurance's profits go to Canada. Even American Bankers Insurance Group is owned now by Fortis AG in Belgium.

Foreign companies are buying up our water systems, our power generating systems, our mines, and our few remaining factories. All because "flat world" so-called "free trade" policies have turned us from a nation of wealthy producers into a nation of indebted consumers, leaving the world awash in dollars that are most easily used to buy off big chunks of America. As www.economyincrisis.com notes, US Government statistics indicate the following percentages of foreign ownership of American industry.

· Sound recording industries - 97%
· Commodity contracts dealing and brokerage - 79%
· Motion picture and sound recording industries - 75%
· Metal ore mining - 65%
· Motion picture and video industries - 64%
· Wineries and distilleries - 64%
· Database, directory, and other publishers - 63%
· Book publishers - 63%
· Cement, concrete, lime, and gypsum product - 62%
· Engine, turbine and power transmission equipment - 57%
· Rubber product - 53%
· Nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing - 53%
· Plastics and rubber products manufacturing - 52%
· Plastics product - 51%
· Other insurance related activities - 51%
· Boiler, tank, and shipping container - 50%
· Glass and glass product - 48%
· Coal mining - 48%
· Sugar and confectionery product - 48%
· Nonmetallic mineral mining and quarrying - 47%
· Advertising and related services - 41%
· Pharmaceutical and medicine - 40%
No more room.......go to article


[edit on 7-12-2008 by ofhumandescent]

In the Uk here, but thought I would offer a view from across the pond.

I know alot of people who have lost their jobs, but they tend to be unskilled or low-level workers so they are usually the first to go.

Having said that, there are plenty of jobs knocking about, at least in the Thames Valley where I live, it's kind of the UK's Silicon Valley, but colder....

My employer (a large telco in the UK) has actually had it's best year in at least a decade. We're on target to break last years record profits and we've all had an advance on our yearly bonus this Christmas.

We have even began recruting big time, at least 12 roles on my side of things (Optical/SDH Transmission) in the NOC and many more elsewhere.

What's helped is that the work we outsourced to India two years ago is being brought back, as management finally realised it isn't cost effective or good for service to have script-following idiots run your network.

As it stands, my wages have increaed by around 4.5% this year alone, I have had good bonuses and my job looks very secure. I should come out of this recession smelling of roses and in a good position to buy a house once the prices come down to realistic levels.

There's always winners as well as losers. I do feel for those without work, but at least we have a good social safety net here in the UK.

EDIT: US unemployment figures only include those currently claiming benefit, does it not? How many are unemployed and have had their benefits expire though?

What is the real figure?

1.9 Million unemployed for the USA seems like very little.

[edit on 7/12/08 by stumason]

Only 1.9 million unemployed in the USA ??

Surely it must be higher than that. If 6%+ of the population is idle, doesn't that make the number of unemployed closer to 20 million ? The United Kingdom itself has 1.9 million officially registered as unemployed, with another million being incapable of work & receiving disability benefits.

When it comes to being made redundant, always remember it's your position in the company which is redundant, not you. Your employer has a responsibility to find you alternative work within the company ... if they can't do so then only at that point are you paid off. So if you find yourself out of work then learn that your ex-boss has filled your shoes with someone else, you can use employment law in your own locale to gain reinstatement or compensation.

I work for the civil service in a social security office and we're being run off our feet with the sheer number of claims to unemployment & disability benefits we're receiving. So much so we're even having to recruit new staff to help man the telephones, reception & to process all the applications. We must be just about the only organisation recruiting right now, us and the debt collectors.

Having worked there for 20+ years I can honestly say I've never known a time when so many new applications for assistance have come in over such a short period. At the moment we're being hit by white collar workers, folks who've never claimed social security in their lives, bank workers, admin & HR staff, folks working in insurance & financial products, folks who have lived the good life over the last 10-15 years and who now find themselves only a few months away from losing everything.

When it comes to local manufacturing I've spoken to employers who can't even afford to lay off staff ... they don't have the funds available to even meet statutory redundancy payments. Smaller businesses are finding their credit lines being chipped away or removed altogether by the banks, or are being hit by punitive charges for even the most basic transactions. Local retailers haven't recruited very much at all in the run up to Christmas, sales are down both in terms of volume & hard cash too. Plenty of footfall though, lots of folks window shopping ... but many are putting off purchases in the expectation that prices next week or next month will be lower than they are today.

Even the local postman was saying they've got staff who are under-employed at the moment, the expected Christmas rush of letters & parcels hasn't materialised this year at all.

It's as grim as ever I've known it. And only going to get worse. Not very cheery, huh ?

reply to post by Charity


Do you live in the UK? I know it's "roles" not "people" that get made redundant here, but maybe it's different in the US?

We get pretty good payoffs too, my ex was made redundant from my company a couple of months back and you get a months salary plus 2 weeks pay for every year.

She came out with several grand in a payout.

reply to post by anachryon


That's really awful...to come in for a 5 hour shift and go home with nothing to show for it.

A few days ago, one cook came in for his scheduled evening shift and they sent him home before he could even clock in. Another guy worked for only 2 hours that night.

For people who are in this situation, it's really difficult. At least if they were laid off because of declining business they could get unemployment benefits. For people who are working but are having their hours slashed and/or working for tips and getting no/few tables, I'm not sure that they would be eligible for unemployment benefits since they're technically employed. I wonder if they quit their jobs under those circumstances if they'd be eligible then? I guess it would vary from state to state, but I would hope they could come some unemployment until they could find something else.

I am a computer programmer and a computer tech.. Well I got the skills and education for such jobs.

I am in michigan and Have been looking for a job for a year now ever since I got out of high school and I am currently in college.

I applied everywhere for jobs. I even applied to micky D's and best buy, family video and all these places. I get no calls and no replies I even call them and ask them what happen. They say they are busy and hung up. They then have something that when I called again it disconnects the call.. .I then used my cellphone and get through so I think they block class they don't want.

I still have no job.. and still applying I have also seen about 40 job scams where they are making you work without you knowing it. I was told some lady was giving a home job.

that company is colburn media. They offered me a job as a website tester from home.. they were willing to pay 12 bucks an hour. but I had to sign a NDA (non-discloser-agreement) and take a quiz with 15 sites... I notice I had to make notes on which one dosen't work and any problems.

I submit the stuff to them never got a response.

I met a person that is a c++ programmer and taught english at college for 12 years and she applied for the same job. She is having a hard time finding a job.

I took a A+ program in highschool and they promised us that when we graduate we will be able to work as a computer repair technician. I applied for those jobs and never got anything.

So I got Feb up and started to make 2 websites. I plan to start my own business. I did worked before for the city part of the park and reqs department. I had to just count and college money from the bowling league program which the city runs.

I can only say that Michigan is a bad place if your looking for jobs. I got job offeres that are outside Michigan which were better paid jobs.

Checking in from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

I thought we would be well insulated here, because of the "boom" in Oilfield construction. But it looks like several major projects have been canceled or suspended indefinitely. Including the huge Upgrader expansion projects (UE-3-8) for Shell's Scottford plant(Ft, Saskatchewan, AB)

Currently there are 3000+ people waiting for work in my union CGW local 92. THis is unusual, usually the out of work board holds 1900+ names.

I"ve heard, though it is unconfirmed, that the pipefitters union has 8000+ unemployed on their board. This is highly unusual because the skilled trades are generally in high demand and have been for years.

Given the hugely inflated cost of real estate in my area, many are "neck deep" in mortgage payments over $2000 a month.

One thing we need to do in our province is send all the foreign workers home immediately.

If our local economy doesn't pick up soon the effects will be disastrous or many families.

I'm 26 and live in New York City, I'm unemployed and evidently couldn't get a job to save my life these days. I've been applying and applying, slowly lowering my standards and requested pay, even dumbing down my work experience in hopes of getting ANY job ANY where with absolutely no luck.

Honestly, I've really run out of ideas, I don't know why I can't get hired, even at the grocery store for minimum wage. It's mind numbingly depressing too, waking up everyday with no where to go and nothing to do. I keep thinking that maybe I should just stick with it, keep applying to different places and maybe something will work out but I never even get a phone call let a lone an interview.

And then when I really think about it, working for minimum wage at a soul crushing job really sounds horrible. Minimum wage is hardly even enough money to get to and from work everyday let alone save anything or pay any bills. Any job I've ever had for minimum wage was so mind numbing that I dreaded even waking up the next day, they were so bad they never lasted long anyway.

I don't know what to do, I have no money, it's depressing and embarrassing, I don't even want to see my friends anymore because I feel like such a failure. I hate running into people on the street because I know they're going to ask me if I had any luck finding a job and they're going to give me that same look when I tell them no. I hate trying to explain to people what I do with my time all day, I hate meeting new people and having to lie about my employment. Every time some potential job ends in nothing I'm left wondering what the hell is wrong with me, what about me makes me completely undesired. I must just be completely worthless to society, not even fit to restock soup cans.

What else am I supposed to think when ex-cons, registered sex offenders, even the mentally handicapped all get hired before I do?

I don't have one cent to spend towards Christmas, even taking someone out for their birthday.

To be honest, I really don't even know what to say about it anymore, the whole ordeal has me suicidal.

Railroads need all the help they can get!

Train Dispatchers in Jacksonville FL are undermanned. They don't have enough people to fill the 24/7 jobs. They have even asked If some of the guys in Indianapolis want to come down to work for extra money. Food paid for ..hotel/apt paid for....ect

for those looking for work, check out csx/ns/up/bnsf/cn/ic