Unfortunatly, I'm working for a company that also may
have to lay off people. I would be one of the people
makeing the decision. It isn't any fun either.
I just hired someone three weeks ago from a secure job
into one that may be cut in the near future. About 35,
with wife working and a baby. The people at the top -
I'm not too far away from it either - don't seem to
have much feelings about it either. It is just
numbers on a page.
Then there are those who deserve a promotion but,
won't get it.
Getting laid off can do a lot to hurt some one's self
image.
I'm amazed at the increasing number of layoffs on the
DML. I remember reccessions of the past. There were
at least manual jobs that might be had - driving taxis
or pumping gas - yes you could still do that in the
70s
What scared me also is all the people who NEED two pay
checks to make the mortage payment - that they took
out at 100% in a hot market. Things could spiral
downward if everyone starts to tighten up at home.
This expansion has been led by high tech. and consumer
spending. Both seem to be slowing down after y2k -
maybe that is the meaning of the y2k bug?
There hasn't been a bad rececession in the US for a
number of years and we have come to belive that 4%
unemployment is the norm. In Western Europe they have
a systemic unemployment around 10% - we would have war
in the streets at that level.
If you haven't done so already, please consider the
following:
Pay off all your debts - except mortgage -
Put away money for those bad times that can happen.
The rule of thumb was that you could expect to take
one month for every $10,000 you earn a year - Now that
number may be between 10 - 15,000
Sorry for the rant.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 11:58:33 EDT