[Kiboru]

I live in Norway and we haven't really been affected that much by the crisis. yet...
Anyway, there's always news about how bad things are in the USA.
And I'm just wondering how people have been affected by it.
Has anyone here lost their job because of the crisis?
Scared of loosing you job?
Or haven't you felt it at all?

[3aidlillahi]

I haven't lost my job (retail) but I'm not sure I'll be able to get another job now (in geology).

[Aaron]

It's a bloodbath...

Hiring freezes, real estate foreclosures, massive layoffs...

And more to come.

Losing 1/4 to 1/2 million jobs per month.

I'm booked solid however.

[CarlosFerreira]

Funny. I decided to take a year off to come to the UK for my MSc. Left the job in July, got a student loan and moved into campus. Pretty insulated, right now. But I've been to a couple of conferences and keep my eyes on the news, and I see a pattern developing. Might be a good idea to stick around studying for a bit more time than originally expected...

[patience]

I'm in southern Indiana, US. We own a family business, repairing farm equipment, sell a little steel, and do machining and welding. Until this year, our business was about half hobbyists, such as individuals with car projects, motorcycles, and fishing boats that wanted repairs or enhancements. That began to drop last January, and was entirely gone by mid-year. Loggers were about 10% of the mix, and are entirely gone now, since housing and thus demand for timber, is non-existent. One factory customer remains, a manufacturer of high-end hardwood flooring, but is down to half their former self. All the home decorative items I made a couple years ago have no demand now.

Farmers made up the rest of our business, and are hurting now from low grain and livestock prices. It costs them about $4.00/bushel to raise corn this year, due to high prices on seed and fertilizer and fuel. At harvest time, corn was selling for about $3.80/bushel. Fuel prices are down now, but the damage is already done. All through this summer, my receipts from farmers were down, and the repair jobs they brought to me were in desperate condition, some not salvageable.

Overall, our shop income was about half of normal this year, and I had to lower my prices to get most of that work, which means more hours for less money. Steel that I have in inventory was bought for an average price of about $.80/lb., which I marked up 30% for retail sale. or to about $1.00/lb.. That inventory value will be at half that by the end of the year, so we will have to sell it for $.50/lb. to sell it at all.

My wife works for the govt Census Bureau, and her job looks safe for now, but we know that they could have budget cuts, and in any case, the 10 year Census will be complete in a couple years, so the job ends then. We are both age 62 this year, so I will begin to draw Social Security benefits in Dec., but the General Motors pension I expected will probably not be there. We can make it, but we will have to work as long as possible to do so.

[vtsnowedin]

The wifes 401K went down 35% before we caught on and switched it to a bond fund. I hope that works to at least stop the losses. My retirement system sent me a notice that they will stop sending me a snailmail check stub for my direct deposits as that was costing them 200k a year. I take that as an ominous sign of bad notices to come. If they put more highway work out to bid next spring as a stimulus package I'll look for a job managing a contract as that was what I used to do for the DOT. Make a little cash and firm up my finances. Just waiting for the next jackboot to drop.

[wisconsin_cur]

Less overtime is available at the current job. It does not hurt me as bad as I got locked into a .9 position a long time ago; most of my hours are locked in.

I have a lot of co-workers in various positions, however, who choose to take smaller appointments (.4-.7) and then make the rest that they needed through overtime. They were young and wanted the "freedom" of being able to say "yes" to more parties etc by determining their schedule week to week.

Some of them are now taking on second jobs... and/or falling behind on bills I suppose.

[FoolYap]

Scared of loosing you job?

Definitely scared. The wife and I work at the same place, both software people. If the employer starts whacking, worst-case we both get the ax at the same time.

On the "bright" side, they've not been hiring for over a year there; people who leave voluntarily are replaced in India, China or Brazil. And we're finally starting to hear that that may not be working as well as they'd hoped/expected. So perhaps we're reaching equilibrium with local employment.

We're living paycheck-to-paycheck in the sense that every paycheck we get, is a little more saved, and little more paid off on the mortgage. We figure at this point, we can't hope for more than that. Good while it lasts.

--Steve

[wisconsin_cur]

Scared of loosing you job? Or haven't you felt it at all?

I guess that I should add that while I feel my current job is fairly safe, that I am applying for another that I believe is safer (and closer but pays less)and will facilitate my becoming better acquainted (on a friendly basis:) ) with local law enforcement... I would think that my resume would look pretty good for the position; I interview in two weeks.

That being said, it means going to the bottom of the seniority ladder...

Well life is a gamble and the days they're just so many decks
Oh the hours are cards they deal and you play what you get
Oh you think of the the time that you knew you could call so you raised
Oh you think of the the time that you got out when you should have stayed
Deal hey may be the next card's an Ace
Deal you ought to go home but you know that a Flush beats a Straight
Oh you can't have a Full House the Queen has been dealt to a friend
Oh the good thing about life is they shuffle and they deal life again

[jasonraymondson]

[SpringCreekFarm]

For now I haven't seen much change in my area. I have a fairly secure job as a computer tech for the local school board but I've never been one to say that my job is fully secure. I'm always ready for the bad news and I run my life accordingly.

The worst news up here in Ontario Canada is that the auto industry might fold. That will certainly have trickle down effects that may reach me eventually but for now it looks ok.

I'm glad I've been paying attention to the problems facing the world because it helps me to make better plans for the long term.

[cipi604]

My company lost 50% of the contracts, they will start laying off people in january. I hope it's not me , but surely I'll have to work a lot more for the same money.

[vision-master]

As a pensioner, it sounds like I may lose my doggie setting job, worth an extra $80 Month cash. The gal may lose her nursing job. Hey, $80 is a big jug of Capt'n Morgan and a full tank of gas!

Also, I will see very little if any pension increases starting in 09.

[retiredguy]

My wife and I are both retired employees of the University of Wisconsin. It seems likely that our pensions will be cut next April, the first time that has ever happened in the pension fund's 26 year history.

Because we have always lived frugally, even more so since retirement, we will easily be able to adapt to the cuts. Many of our colleagues are not in that position, though.

Thanks to warnings received over the four years of being active on peakoil.com, our re-invested 403(b) funds have not taken the hits that our friend's funds have taken.

[Byron100]

Two words: Heck yeah.

While I've been living off odd jobs and stuff like the "Florida money" we received from the 2005 housing bubble, it's my S.O. that's lost his career job (electronic tech) he's had for 16 years. Since I was on his health insurance plan, I'll be losing my health coverage once his severance pay runs out on 28 Jan 2009. Just eight more weeks to go, and I get to join the ranks of the uninsured here in the good ole USA.

And let's just say I'm real envious of those of you who still have "secure" jobs, as you'll never, ever know what it's like to have your livelihood yanked out from under you, until you experience it yourself. Having to see my partner going through this wrenching process has been very hard on the soul. It doesn't matter how much cash you have squirreled away or how many preps to live on for x number of years, it still sucks majorly to have a lifelong career taken away from you.

What makes it even harder is knowing that the "Jobs Age" will never come back again - we're way too FUBAR as a country for that to ever happen. Sure, there's the big-time guvvie employment programs that Obama and the Peloski-led Congress will surely put into place come next year, but when the debt gravy train comes to an end, where is the moola gonna come from? Big Brother Guvvie won't have two dimes to rub against each other, let alone raining down trillions to keep some semblance of an economy running. That's when the jobs are really going to disappear.

So, my advice to all of you who still have a job - better start imagining life without one, quite possibly for the rest of your life. And even if you're "secure", being without a job that you've put your life-long energy and sweat into will take a psychological toll that's likely to be far greater than you've ever anticipated it to be.

Just sayin'....

[gollum]

I work in healthcare, my wife does some cleaning. No direct affect yet, but we do save more and spend less.

[galacticsurfer]

small auto parts import business with some manufacturing trying to diversify into solar somewhat. Credit lines hard to get. Business is at limit. We are reducing work force, considering subrenting warehouse and office space so that fixed cost are less and also getting customers to prepay goods so we can pay containers as bank won't stretch us the money. All pretty tricky from day to day living on cash flow of goods when goods have stopped flowing. May have to look for a new job if it all goes down the tubes. I have a lot of company I would guess as lots of parts suppliers will go down.

[Ludi]

Not too much so far. Our business lost an order because our client didn't earn enough to pay for it, so that's a few thousand $ we won't be earning next year. I expect business to be a bit slower next year.

[RedStateGreen]

My husband does software for a defense contractor. So we should be fine, unless their contracts are canceled. Somehow I doubt that will happen, though, with the way the US seems to want to bomb people all the time.

[Ferretlover]

Other than our county assessor dropping the value of our home 4.7%, and, our 401K losing about 1/6 of its value, we have seen no other changes.