Economy and Jobs

[tightasadrum]

Ah yes. Now here's a topic too near and dear to my heart. I went through two plant closings inside of three years which was caused by corporate takeover. The new owner has been selling off pieces for over ten tears now. I never did find a comparable position with another company when I finally ran out of options. I expect my age, over 55, may have had something to do with it, I don't know. Now I'm retired and working my a** off with rental property remodeling and home projects. In fact, I need a vacation, bad.

I remember back many years ago when it became fashionable to outsource manufacturing work. Everyone in corporate management was pushing it to increase returns. Now the fashion is to outsource service and support work. Have you tried to get Customer Support lately? If you can get past the computer-pushbutton-hell, you're as likely as not talking to someone halfway around the world with a accent that only vaguely resembles English. It struck me after one such episode recently that we are on a fast track toward living in a third-world environment, virtually if not actually.

[Spanky]

Supervalu. Inc, headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, is planning to layoff 2000 jobs, 180 of which are information technology jobs. The reason is to get rid of duplicate functions from the merge with Albertson and to save costs.

[Frugality_of_Apathy]

My boss just told me on friday they were going to start laying people off. Apparently he thinks our department (currently three people after firing one and one quitting) should be fine as long as our income doesn't drop 30% below it's current level. Though it's dropped 50% since January so I'm applying at a couple places in town that sound interesting. Though I'd hate to end up giving my two weeks notice hours before I was going to get some kind of severance package.

[Zoocat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Midpack I am sorry about the job losses you describe and no question it's tougher out there than it was a few years ago. But I just hired someone, it's not all bad news out here...

Well, how old is that new hire? I think the OP was complaining that these people are over 50 and it's hard to find a comparable position at that age. The job market like the stock market is never that bad if you have a long horizon for recovery.

[FIREd]

FIL (61) lost his job in May. DW's company (healthcare) has gone through massive layoffs in the past year (high compensation, and generally older, employees were at the top of the "pink slip" list). Lots of jobs moving to India or being handled by contractors. In the past few months though, the problem has been people leaving their jobs voluntarily. OUr plan is to be financially independent by the time we reach 45-50 so that we don't have to worry about layoffs in the later part of our careers.