How are you faring in the current economic situation?

[BAD]

I just want to see how everyone else is doing in the recession that we are currently in. Let me tell you my story of how I am doing.

I graduated high school in 2006. During this time the economy was pretty good despite the ongoing war in Iraq. I wanted to go straight to college but I couldn't because my parents got a divorce right after I graduated. They couldn't support me going to college, so I needed to find another way to do so. I spent a year working a bunch of odd-jobs to support myself and get money for college, but I was getting nowhere.

In March of 2007, I decided that in order for me to go to college and not be so fucking broke I had to join the military. I joined the Air National Guard mainly for the college money. I was successful with boot camp and tech school. When I got back home from military training I started working at a military base one weekend a month, and in return I get to go to college for free. This was by far the happiest time in my life, because EVERYTHING was going my way.

All did not end well though, cause' in December 2008 I was discharged from the Air National Guard. I didn't get in any trouble, but I was not able to get along with my supervisor so I got an Honorable discharge. Now that I was out of the military I had to pay for school myself with student loans. This added a lot of debt and I was eventually able to get an A.A. degree out of it. With this degree I wanted to start working and take a break from school.

Now it's 2010. I haven't been able to get a half-decent job at all despite my efforts. I don't want to rack up more debt to get another degree only to be jobless in the end. I currently live with my dad and he gives me hell for being unemployed. It's gotten to the point that I am now currently going to re-enlist into the military. I will be in the Army active duty not too long from now. At least I will have a fucking job and won't feel like such a bum leeching off of my dad. The Army will give me a life that I was not able to find in the civilian world, and for that I will gladly lay down my life for the Army if need be.

I think this country is headed for a giant shift in that this generation of young people will not be as successful as their parents. This trend will continue to get worse and will be like this for a long time I believe. No longer can you just go out and get a job like in the old days. Now you basically have to apply for over 100 jobs and be lucky if one of them gives you a call back.

How are the rest of you doing in this economy? Do you think the economy will get better or worse?

 

[Vineon]

As people still get sick, it affected little the pharma company I work at.

Employment is also going fairly well here as we speak and can only get better in the next years with the baby-boom generation retiring, leaving a ton of jobs for the younger generations. It think it was probably much tougher for that generation to get a job than it will be for yours.

 

[Flamewheeler]

That is depressing. Anyway, I'm currently in my sopomore year at my community college and I plan to transfer to a university next spring. I slacked and now I have to stay an extra semester. =/ Anyway, I've never had a job. My mom wouldn't allow me to work in high school and now bitches just won't hire me. -.- I think myself and my family have done ok because we bought a house about a year ago, but that was a surprise and kind of a long story. My aunt and uncle however, are under the pressure of having their home forclosed on. This recession sucks, but it's not as bad as it could be.

 

[McGrrr]

I work as an auditor for a large accountancy firm in the UK. Since our revenue depends entirely on the economic well being of our clientèle, we have performed modestly and lost quite a few clients during the downturn. Within my team, one director was made redundant and one manager left without replacement. The junior intake was reduced to two per year in 2008 and was staggered in 2009; I joined in September while the other new starter joined in January 2010.

In the last 12 months, my company has bought out two competitors. One was a long planned takeover that complemented our business and it made a lot of sense. However, the other was a knee jerk reaction to the competitor going bust, which I believe to be a strategic mistake. IMO, we should have gone for their clients and not their costs. We have grown significantly through these acquisitions, but our organic growth is relatively low.

My job is safe, but I plan to leave my company after September 2012. This is when I achieve full ACCA membership and can jump ship for a 20%+ salary premium elsewhere.

My father is a senior research engineer and will be offered a redundancy package in Spring 2011 because the Japanese head office is closing down its operations in my town. He was offered positions within the organisation in Japan and Scotland, but has opted to look for pastures new. My mother works part time for a FTSE 100 company and has not been affected.

Re: the macroeconomic climate

People did not understand that "quantitative easing" (QE) is a pseudo-tax that manifests itself as inflation. The subtle difference is that taxation takes money out of your pocket, while QE lets you keep your money, but takes the purchasing power away from it. The outcome is the same, because we can no longer afford to buy as many things as before.

The inflationary effect of QE takes time to filter through to the real economy, but we are certainly feeling the pinch now with RPI at 4.6% in September and trending higher. But what does that mean? It means a deterioration in the standard of living for everyone.

The public sector cuts were a welcome announcement, but they are not nearly deep enough, and continue to be undermined by a clueless Bank of England insistent on holding the base rate at 0.5% (instead of raising it). One only needs to look back 30 years for the potential consequences...

In 1976, the UK became insolvent and was forced to restructure its debt with a deficit equaling ~6% of GDP. We went bowl in hand to the IMF and in return for a loan, agreed to a number of austerity measures. Our current deficit stands at ~11% of GDP and continues to grow. In short, things are going to get a lot lot worse.

 

[AJers]

The "recession" is just really starting to hit New Mexico; I'm not saying we weren't hit, but I think it's starting to filter down more now... it's definitely not over yet. For example, up until about 4 months ago our turnover rate was horrendous; now people are holding on to their jobs a lot harder because it's so much more difficult to find a new one. As in, unless you have some specialized training, there really isn't crap for you out there.

Added to that the state/federal budget cuts that are about to filter down to the local levels are going to effect the economy as well. I'm not saying it's not going to recover, but I'm expecting it to get a lot worse before it gets any better...

As far as I go... the recession was this big shadow over the last year, but now it's going to start hitting home in the next 6 months. My 401(k) was hit a little last year, but it's still minuscule and I expect to go through at least one more recession in my lifetime before I get to dig into that money anyways so I'm not really upset about it. In fact, I would be surprised if it wasn't hit again this year, too. Actually, now that I think about it, I haven't seen a positive rate of return on that thing in over a year, haha... Shucks! I may need to re-evaluate my fund allocations... but when I start looking at that stuff it stresses me out. It's like those traders who invest a shitload of money and check every ten seconds and have a heart attack every time the stock takes a dip and then re-allocate the money and 3 months later they would have made over a million dollar profit (ie, my bosses, haha)... Sometimes you just have to ride out the wave...

Anyways, I'm not afraid of losing my job, and even if I did I wouldn't be afraid of not being able to find a new job... but we will see. Only time will really tell... That being said, I'm not really afraid of not having a job; I think it comes from growing up poor... and the fact that there is nothing riding on my check other than me. I don't have kids, I don't have a whole lot of commitments, so on and so forth. A lack of money doesn't honestly scare me.

 

[Rocket_Grunt]

Living in Michigan, you can -see- the difference between now, one year ago, five years ago, and ten years ago. But as it is everywhere, there are some places that are doing well.

Deteriorating cities, physically and financially are visible mostly to those larger than quaint, pretty towns such as Saline and Tecumseh. But unfortunately, even my hometown I noticed quite a few empty lots and shops that once used to be bustling with the locals. While only just a "step up" as far as size and complexity of a smaller town, Adrian's deterioration is rather apparent, similar to a larger city such as Ypsilanti, and even parts of Ann Arbor. Of course, the larger the city you go to, the more deterioration you may see, but a lot of it was already there (i.e Detroit).

As for me personally...

"Graduating" in 2008, I decided to spend my first year at home, and take online courses. Not having a job prior to graduation--my first mistake, I got on the ball rather quick to end up in retail before I moved on campus.

My lazy habits from high school were following me,as I ended up getting a tuition bill for six months worth of classes-- my second mistake. Working a year in a retail store in a mall, I soon learned all about taxes, retirement funds, college funds, and of course bills. Working short-hour, I was only promised 12 hours a week, though if I picked up hours regularly, I would sometimes get around 20 hours, and at least one time 40 at 7.40, but at this point there were few bills to worry about, and my money went to entertainment purposes only--my third mistake. Considering this, and with the help of my parents, we did fairly well at the time.

By August 2009, we lost our house, and some time before this my parents filed bankruptcy. A slight bit of this was premeditated, simply because our house's rent was just too expensive. We took it as an opportunity to move. The reason? My dad had been working in the same place for over the past...eh, 10-13 years in a small screw machine shop. It was a secure place for -him- at least.

My mom started having difficulties since 2005 working in the auto industry as well, jumping around contract by contract, factory closure by factory closure. She found one of her last jobs and managed to get into Quality Assurance, at $18 an hour as her peak income, pulling in more than my dad. Because of this...well, of course we splurged-- my fourth mistake, which led to our own downfall. Her last job iirc was about $10-11, but when the factory closed (and more than likely went to Mexico, in all seriousness), she had to rely on unemployment paying her at that rate. By logical means, she did not seek any jobs that would pay less than her unemployment, which did help us at that time.

After accepting enrollment, and after loosing the house (and getting just under 2k for Cash for Keys), they took their trailer (which had been dramatically transformed to be more...housy) and we went down to Ohio, homeless for a week before school started, and a few more months for them. They stayed at a friends house, and eventually set driving down to Florida to visit my sister. Deciding to stay, they found a camp/permanent trailer camp, and lived there. Just recently, they moved to a cheaper camp and are living there to stay, creating a "Florida room", which is more or less an attachment to the trailer. After rent and utilities, it's about $300-400 a month.

Job wise, my dad has been working under my sister's boyfriend's failing business, and having his pay cut without notice. My mom, on the other hand found a nice job in a secure factory. Unfortunately, during this time of year, they've slowed down dramatically, but are picking up again after the winter season. My dad is currently looking for another job.

This is my second year on campus, and I'm rather having a difficult time. Job searches need to be very specific, as big name companies are filled up. It's the smaller businesses and local shops that have the openings, but are difficult to locate if you don't know your way around to even apply to them, or just have terrible laziness. I held one job so far, and I walked away from it. Something about calling alumni from the university and asking for donations, only to find out their spouse has been dead or to hear struggling stories such as mine to be repeated day in and day out was emotionally taxing*. This may have been a mistake, but I know my part-time career lies with Retail, until I can find a suitable internship for my degree, or even a part time job at least -relating- to computers.

My parents have their own bills but are covering mine, which include cell phone (my only link to them and to anyone needing to get a hold of me, including job interviews) storage, car insurance, and other miscellaneous university charges this school can think up. At this time, I'm drawing the maximum financial aid possible, but because I took spring and summer classes and lived on campus during that time, I have over $400 to pay off before December, or I'm unable to register for winter classes. This came to a great disappointment, as I thought similar people such as myself, who are unable to go home and have no place to stay, and would be accommodated. Paying about $1000 just to register for Fall classes back in April, I was out of money for the remaining charges billed to me after the summer semester began (a bit cheaper when you have only 1 credit hour for the summer).

Unable to support me as much as they would like, my parents and myself are struggling. I think at this point in time, it would be a matter of just finding a good, solid job. Like I said, it may have been a mistake to leave my last, but I think I'd rather do customer support over the phone rather than beg other poor people for money, who really don't want to talk to me as I read from a script and manipulate/guilt trip them. Currently my job hunt leads me to explore this town and surrounding areas, and utilizing Craig's List and a few other sources for small-business openings. But it's tight, and it's a nice lesson learned, and quite the reality check.

In a way, I look forward to the challenges ahead, as a test for me to get through until I'm in my career, and have my salary. Or until I can win the lottery....whichever.

Lesson? Prepare for the worst, and never get too comfortable and take it for granted.

 

[Rocket_Grunt]

*-- Yes, I'm kind of a bleeding heart, and not totally devoid of emotion. I'm a friendly people person, what can I say?

It's not the worst story, but it's a story of taking temporary relief for granted, and being unprepared.

 

[Deck Knight]

I am fortunate in that I am very cautious and never go out on any wild goose chases. If things look bad I hunker down with what I already have. I'd need to be insane to start looking for greener pastures now. I graduated from college in May 2007, got my first job that October working as a reporter for the Diocese of Fall River. Fast Forward through that and into February of 2009 and two positions at the Archdiocese of Boston and it turns out my only two placed of employment don't pay into umemployment insurance, meaning I had zero unemployment benefits and no job.

Mercifully I'm extremely adaptive and was offered a job at my mother's medical billing company where I've been ever since, and I managed to adapt pretty well into it since a lot of the work is basically accounting and I have a business background.

That being said the business climate sucks and we're going to have to change health insurance from Blue Cross to something else because it will become too expensive, and it's not optional because of all the mandates Massachusetts has inflicted on employers regarding health insurance. The people of Massachusetts are pretty resilient and adapt well to new conditions, but there's still been a lot of economic stress and we've been surviving mostly on money from the feds pouring into the Medicaid program. We're basically a prop at this point and the anchor is about to be dislodged.

We're also lucky that after Dad's business went under (the ASO shipping model is dead now that UPS/Fedex have retail shiping outlets) that he managed to find a job before things got really bad, and he now works full time and survived three rounds of company layoffs.

Right now I'm in conservation mode and just trying to keep my job until things improve, it's not an unbearable job but it is stressful and so anal that it can wear on you, and I feel at this point I'm suffering from too much burnot and not being as effective as I'd like. Long story short I'm keeping what I got for now.

 

[WaterBomb]

When I first read the title I thought it said "How are you farting..."

Well, I spent two years trying to find a job that offered salary and benefits up here in New Jersey, so I could be near my fiance. I was working as a manager at Papa Johns up until June, which of course is a paycheck but not a great one. I landed a job as a recruiter for an educational staffing company (we work with school districts to hire, employ, and place their substitute teachers in absences). My job is to seek out these applicants, interview them, and administer to them through the paperwork process until they have all requirements assembled and can officially enter the classroom. It's 35k/year + 5k bonus potential, and benefits are offered, so it's liveable. My ultimate goal is still to become a teacher, but that's nigh impossible in New Jersey at the moment. Aside from the lengthy and frustrating job search, the economy has treated me fine. I am not starving, I am driving a good car, my apartment is reasonably sized and I have expendable income for leisure activities.

 

[Mulligan]

Hmmm.....

Things seemed to be going fine, in fact, things were looking up for me career wise. I landed a position at a larger bank in early 2008 after 2 1/2 years working at a smaller, military based bank. I was excited since I intended to move around in the company at my new job. Then, we got hit by the recession...hard. The financial sector felt it first(at least around here). There were several cutbacks. Policies changed leaving no room for error on the employees part(where you could be written up 4 times for the same offense before termination, you now could be fired for 4 of ANY violation.....meaning you can do 4 different things once and be gone). I hung in there, but the violations finally caught up with me at the end of 2009(working at the busiest branch in the county with minimal employees didn't help) and I was promptly let go.

Needless to say, I was very bitter the first few months, even though I managed to qualify for unemployment. I had experienced two robberies with this company at the branch I was at, one at gunpoint . I was an excellent employee overall, though admittedly I started to get frustrated towards the end of my employment(every time I was up for promotion, I'd get a violation, preventing me from doing so). We lost our apartment, both our cars, and were both out of work. My wife managed to get a job at the same company her dad works for, but because it's seasonal work(during the school year) it wasn't enough to stop the inevitable. My 401k, as small as it was, is now spent(tried to keep up with bills and ride it out). I've now relocated to another city on the other side of the state. I won't go into details but lets just say there were mixed factors/thoughts that went into this decision both from me and the people around me at the time.

Fast forward: After being here for 3+ months and being unemployed for nearly a year, I FINALLY landed(unofficially) a position at an even larger bank than the last one I was at, making about 4k more than I was. I'm literally just waiting on the offer letter from my recruiter to make it official and I start the end of this month, doing what I wanted to do in the first place....except it's more behind the scenes, but that's good enough for me.

I say this to be an encouragement to others. It's been a day by day process and it still is, because I literally had to tear the foundation down and build another one in every area of my life. I still have no car, no place of my own(staying with Mom), and my significant other isn't here. But, things are looking up and I'm learning a lot about myself that I didn't know.

 

[Firestorm]

The recession didn't hit Canada nearly as bad as it did the States (mostly due to the way we regulate our banks I believe but I don't know shit about economics). I graduated from high school in 06 as well and my parents paid for about half my tuition for the first two years with my entrance scholarship and then part-time jobs covering the other half. I lived at home which cut down on costs as well. Afterwards, I was able to get co-op jobs (internships) on alternating terms with school so I could pay my tuition by myself and pay back my parents for what they'd given me before. I'll be going on my last internship in January, finishing my last term of school after that, and then hopefully I'll have made enough of an impression on the internship to return for full-time work! I absolutely hate borrowing money from my parents. I'm grateful they immigrated to Canada and I don't pay rent or anything. I don't like asking them for money for more.

My dad is in a very stable job and I don't think he'll be out of work anytime. His job is the reason we moved to Vancouver in the first place. My mom unfortunately got laid off right at the beginning of the recession and finally got her job back a few months ago. Our family is stable again like it was pre-recession.

 

[Surgo]

I graduated college in Spring '09, so pretty much in the nadir of the economy. Fortunately I had the foresight to realize that I wasn't sure what I wanted to do right away, and applied for graduate school. So that's where I'm at now. They don't pay me a whole lot of money, but it's enough to live on. Especially considering how they're paying me to go to school.

After I finish in 13 (hopefully), I'll be able to pretty much go wherever the mega tech corps are and do whatever. Which is most places these days.

My ultimate goal is still to become a teacher, but that's nigh impossible in New Jersey at the moment.

Lol yeah, you'd have to be an idiot to go into teaching in New Jersey right now.

 

[yiran]

I'm younger than all you guys by pretty far (you really can see so from my posts in fire, I should of lurked more), so economy isn't anything of an issue for me. I have to agree I was born in a reasonably rich family, so my family doesn't have any economic issues either.

 

[Chou Toshio]

Grad 2009 like Surgo, and got the GMAT outta the way that summer. Unfortunately, if you're planning on business school, your score is completely irrelevant if you don't have good work experience. I personally wouldn't want to go without having work experience. Finding a job was . . . a bitch . . .

Finally, my parents were like, "If you're going to waste our money paying for your medical insurance while being unable to find a job, you might as well go back to being a student (and thus get back on our insurance plan)!" I still had a strong desire to continue studying Japanese, so I spent most of the next year at a private (cheap) language school in Japan. Actually, it was pretty awesome-- the teachers bent to my schedule, giving me private lessons from a mix of textbooks, newspapers and other resources. The school set me up with an internship at a local Chamber of Commerce, and put me through a 1 month intensive specifically for business purposes.

I am now a master of bowing and sucking up! Rent and Tuition was cheap enough that my parents actually ended up paying significantly less to send me than it would have costed them to have me keep (unsuccessfully) job hunting at home. That said, I am of course extremely grateful for their support.

At the same time I was studying, I applied for the JET program, a program that sends young adults to Japan to work as English Teachers. I fortunately got in, and now am living off the Japanese Government's tab. I got no complaints about the job except that life is too easy-- I worry about growing complacent. Also, the JET ends so you can't afford to get complacent.

Being in Japan though oddly put me in position to be scouted by an Aquarium Design company in the US. Erhm, yeah . . . Aquarium Design is kinda my thing hobby-wise, and is my major passion. Assuming that doesn't bomb, I'll be moving back to the states next September! It won't pay very well at first so I am trying hard to save up now (so I'm not dirt poor then) but has much more potential to take off and become big-- also I'll be doing something I love. What's to miss? haza

 

[Eraddd]

At the moment, our family is holding up fine. As Vineon said previously, everyone will continue to get sick, and my mom's job as a pharmacist is pretty secure (even though she chooses to work only part time). My dad's job as an acupuncturist and oriental doctor is also secure due to the huge Asian community, and also the Westerners who continue to look for alternatives to mainstream medicine.

As a student, I'm fortunate that my first year of university is paid for, and that I have additional scholarships to supplement my needs for this year, and the next two. Furthermore, my parents have a RRSP fund in my name for my university. The next 4 years, our family will receive a decent sum of money to pay for my education and other costs. I do not have a job as of right now; however, I am volunteering at the pharmacy my mother works at, and I am also planning to volunteer at a hospital to boost my resume. I'm also head of a government approved organization that our friends and I just recently formed.

So as of the moment, our family and I are financially secure for around the next 4 years. Unless something terrible goes wrong, the financial hit shouldn't be as hard on us, as it is to others in my province.

 

[Surgo]

Have to say Chou, I am pretty inspired by your story. Way to push yourself to success.

 

[chaos]

I am doing very well financially.

I am not looking for a job, yet I get 1 to 3 e-mails every day with application/interview requests. I sometimes pass on the leads to my friends for fun.

 

[Thund91]

I feel like the recession has only hit certain spots. At least around the area I live. I graduated high school in 09 and it seems that no one in my class struggled financially whatsoever. Even now, my friends and I still blow the same amount of money than we did even before the recession started. The area that I live in still has a lot of job openings and there are actually quite a few new businesses opening up.

As for me, I still live with my parents so I don't really have anything to worry about. They're very well off and we're still able to live the same lifestyle that we did years ago. As far as school goes, I'm in a CCC right now and am gonna transfer asap (which is hard cause I'm such a lazyass and need to repeat a few courses). When I eventually do transfer to a university, I plan to live in a dorm and my parents won't really have any trouble paying for that either....except I am planning to get a job very soon just to be a bit less dependent on my parents.

 

[Sir Koopaman]

Very good. My parents have over $1,000,000 in savings yet they make $65,000 a year.
And unemployment won't happen.

 

[God.]

very poorly. for about a year and a half my mom was unemployed and i was paying most of the bills with my shitty <$8/hr part time job, heavily supplemented with credit card debt. this february was an especially bad month because my store closed and i was laid off and her car got repossessed so that obviously limited job range because we live in bumblefuck since we moved due to foreclosure/divorce sale of the house. on the plus side i was now able to register at a community college because i was close enough to feasibly bike there(about 15 miles roundtrip). have around a 3.8 GPA which should be higher by the end of summer and i try to take the most difficult classes i can, so i'll probably be able to get into a pretty decent school when i transfer in the fall. that'll make things easier for me but i'd still be worried about my mom since, although she finally has a job now, it's a shitty 12/hr job and i still have to help out substantially. i'll probably try to live mostly off loans/grants/hope i get some scholarships while im away at a 4 year and get a part time job and send her half the check or something. no savings whatsoever obviously.