Friday, December 5, 2008

Job cuts 533K


This is a bit of a shock. I was watching the financial news last night. They had been predicting between 350 and 500K loss. And this is still only the beginning. There are a lot of companies who have scheduled lay offs for 09. Let me see if I have this correct. Construction was first to collapse. That started last December. Mortgage banking followed (in terms of jobs loss although they are tied to construction so about the same time). The financial sector came next. I think they are still bleeding jobs and will continue into next year. The Auto industry is very close to being a thing of the past. Pharmaceuticals and health care are scheduled to cut jobs in 09. With no or lowered demand I'm certain the airlines will be cutting back which of course will hit the airplane builders. And not to forget the farmers who got decked first with high fuel, feed and fertilizer costs then with lower prices for their crops when they went to sell. Did I forget anybody?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Construction, check.
Auto, check.
Financial, check.
Pharma, check.
Farming, check.
Tech? Hmm...no tech?

Guess I should read the writing on the wall and try to get my act together....

pygalgia said...

Just what I need...more compition.

Demeur said...

If you don't have your act together right now you're way behind. Welcome to the wonderful world of the unemployed. We're all in the same sinking boat.
Oh and I'm sure tech should be not far to follow.

Hey Py glad to see you're still alive and kicking. Maybe you could run some river rafting tours for the auto CEOs when they get canned in the not to distant future.

BBC said...

Well, the only thing that could hurt me is if my SS money stops coming in. But if it does I'll still get by, I have a lot of skills and I'm willing to work cheap to get by and know a lot of well off people even though I hate working for them.

Anonymous said...

It's all sort of tied together, so if one big sector goes down, the rest go too. However, I'd be surprised if health care and pharmaceuticals do any big downsizing. Health insurance might be a different story, depending on what Obama and Congress do about national health insurance.

Demeur said...

S.W. You need to do your homework. Pharma has been laying off for the last three years.

http://industry.bnet.com/pharma/1000470/pfizers-no-layoffs-plan-results-in-january-09-layoffs/

As noted by the above article 59,000 were laid off in the last three years with more to come. I was just at the clinic today and their cutting back to a four day week. What's that tell you?
People are loosing their health insurance as the lay offs continue. I lost mine in May and there's no way I could afford a Cobra. I found it's cheaper to pay as you go.