How is this Recession Likely to Affect You?
 

Is it likely to have an impact on your job, where you live, etc?

My whole department is being outsourced. I don't really want to transfer to the company that it's being outsourced to, but given the choice between that and having to try to pimp my CV around at a time when the job market is utter crap, I'll probably have to.

I'm totally effected by it. I work within the realms of the auto industry and the record low sales are hurting my job plenty. I'm talking an average loss of 30%.

Jobs in education tend to be fairly secure. However with the predicted drop in student numbers this may change in a year or so - especially considering the way universities are now being run more like businesses than ever before.

Its funny you mentioned that, because I was lloking into some courses to take at the Uni and teaching came to mind. Then I figured out how completely un-recession proof that job was and opted out. I think I may do something within the bounds of radiology,x-ray tech, chemo-tech. Its sad, but the truth is that in the US health care (or sick care as some say) will always be in business full steem. So I'm likely to start classes for something in that field.

In principle, healthcare should be recession proof. The problem is the way organisations are governed. They need to be seen to be cutting costs (usually by reducing their wage bills) in order for them to look efficient in the eyes of those bodies funding them.

Saying that, in the UK at least, the sight of nurses (and maybe primary school teachers) being laid off in order to save money would cause a massive national outcry to the extent that they are probably the only body that will remain untouched by any upcoming recession.

EDIT: I emphasise this as being the case in the UK rather than, say, the US, simply because of our nationalised health and school system.

Yeah the socialized medicine and education play a large role-on recession effected jobs.

we get enough fixed money for rent and food, but i see no clients coming. likely the chunk of dough i habitually used to expand my business (software, gear, computers, etc) will have to approach zero for a while.

i'm sure i'll be able to scrounge some money here and there, but it's not going to be pretty.

maybe after the stimulus plan kicks in things will pick up again. let's see how that goes.

if all goes to shit, i can always go back to living in the boonies for free again, but it's not something i would want to do AT ALL.

in any case, let's not make too much fuzz about it, our ancestors had it worse than us.

 

^^RdTv. Isn't the prospect of your government bailing out the auto-industry likely to make your job at least slightly more secure? From over here it seems as though the US treats companies like Ford and General Motors in a way similar to how we think of the NHS: as a national institution worth saving at any cost.

I'm taking bets on how bad the stock market will do. I'm raking it in.

In all seriousness, my company deals with telecommunication equipment, so we are doing just fine. The only thing that was really hurting us were the gas prices, because of the amount of shipping we do, but now that they are down quite a bit, we are just fine. We aren't immune obviously, but we did have our best year since 2001 last year.

Yes and no.

The yes part:Obviously the makers won't be closing their doors and therefore having a ripple effect on millions of people.

The no part: While they did get approved for the money it means slimming down, trimming the fat and means less aftermarket spending across the board. GM agreed to reduce their delaerships from 4000 to 2600 stores nationwide. So all that puts my line of work in a bind. Now, to compound this, retail sales are low because people dont have money to spend on dvd systems, spoiler, tint, paint protection film, woodgrain dashes and other accessories that aren't crucial to the vehicles functionality.

It sucks for now, but I'm looking at it as an oportunity to get out of a business that i already don't like. Seriously, car dealers really are true to the stereotype of : liar, cheat, sleazy hair and chain-smoker.

I have owned my own business for over 5 years now and 2008 was the worst year financially so far. I am barely eating right now.

Bush can suck my left nut.

The company I work for has had a slew of redundancies. I will probably survive wave two of sackings as well. I'm anticipating a re-structure, which will possibly mean that I could get a better job out of the recession, which could mean I waylay going back to school for yet another year. I'm fucking great me.

Being that you guys know what I do and where I work I can't be too specific other than my boss is not laying anyone off from my company and we are probably relocating to New Jersey from NYC within 6 months. We have had to make other sacrifices - but my books are selling well, and our company is doing well (comparatively) with many planned releases in the future.

I think we may be the only company in the US anime/manga industry that hasn't laid anyone off. Hopefully that trend will continue.

What company do you work for?

My father's owns his own business. He owns a Food Distributing company and lately it's been awful. However in the past two weeks we have added 2? new routes to Iowa. It's actually quite expensive paying people to drive out to Iowa and competing with the other food distributors. Gas prices are helping us out big time seeing how diesel is now just under $3. However, many restaurants suck at keeping up with their tabs. Overall Sales may be down, but hopefully we'll be able to survive.

as a Harvester of Souls, business has never been this good!

ask me how you too can reap for fun and profit (from the comfort of yr own home)!!

Media Blasters aka
Anime Works/Tokyo Shock/Kitty Media/Rare Flix/Fever Dreams/Alteil

i thought publishing was supposed to be fairly recession proof as people tend to stay in more and things like books and dvd sales are relatively stable?
i work at a film pr company and the home entertainment team have more work now than ever, not sure how safe my job is, i'm also looking for a new one at the moment too.

Business has been better than ever for the company I work for, then again it's mostly rich people who go to the theatre, and they contribute with the pound to its staying open. That could change. The company also started making people redundant before the recession. We'll see.

A lot of the retailers are going under - there are less places to sell our stuff. It makes it harder to make money.

They just laid off people at work.

aka "Half of atsonicpark's movie collection"

it won't .
I'm a teacher so i can't technically be made redundant unless i do something awful like huh wait i was gonna make a joke and i'm not supposed to.
anyway just like anyone i can feel prices go up and "sinistrose" just about anywhere. Businesses closing down and all.
So yeah i'm just watching the world falling apart; the only thing i can do to be useful is tell the kids not to waste their teenage life and start building their (no) future NOW; watch the news and be aware of what the world is like or at least be educated enough to make the right decisions when they have to.
Pretty abstract right now.

I imagine the problem your company faces is more from the prospect of cuts in government funding than from a lack of paying customers in that I imagine its still quite heavily subsidised.

Oddly, I might be in a slightly better financial situation than before. At least from perspective of job security. Worries last fall led me to make haste to the prospective employers, and I now am on the payroll of the university here. I have a fairly okay check streaming into my checking account now every two weeks--whereas before I was depending on the drip-by-drip income of the freelance writer, and the drips were getting slower and slower!

Nevertheless, I'll eel a lot more guilty now when I spend my money on the inevitable frivolities like beer, Long Island Iced Teas, Starbucks coffee, J. Crew Final Sale items, and overpriced 180-gram LP reissues.

Oh, yeah, and my TIAA/CREF stock-based retirement fund is, like, disappearing. What's up with that?

Not anymore. It's been over a year, I think, since the council cut funds to 56 art organisations. I'm all for it, even if it means I might lose my job, at one point.

Nice thing about my job is that while it's on the U campus, it's actually funded not by the state or by the U but by a fat cat journal association.

I'm going to hit the streets and hop trains as another drifter in a new lost generation.

i stopped working and went to college before the blood started to flow.
i still have some savings and there's no sign of decrease of precarious job offers.
i guess i will be ok.

Almost the same for me.

i'm still studying, but i guess it might get harder to find work as an illustrator when i finish my studies. i'll be in school for at least two more years though, so don't have to wory too much yet.

prob have to stop buying so much snacks for when im too stoned and playing ps3 on my hi def telly

second

hmmm.. back to school maybe?

i'm vaguely thinking about joining the army

i take it online sales don't balance this out then?

although it's been said that the recession won't affect our economy as bad as our neigboring countries (Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary, to be exact) because we adopted Euro as our new currency starting January 1st, first signs of what's happening tell me it's gonna be way worse than expected. People are getting sacked from big companies (such as US Steel, Volkswagen, KIA etc.), unemployement rises and it's much harder to get a loan or mortgage these days in the bank.
As far as my job, I can say I'm pretty safe because our agency still has many assignments and frankly, I don't believe advertising spends will decrease significantly in comparsion to last year. So, I'm not really afraid of losing my job or something.

anything. it's mainly because it's an easy way to find a job (and i'm currently trapped in a pit of despair regarding work), plus it's physical work, and i would travel. on the downside i don't want to have to fight in any wars that i disagree with (i.e. most wars) and also i imagine most army dudes would be kind of not the type of people i would find it easy to get along with... not that i particulalrly find any type of people easy to get along with, but still.