I just got a letter from the gas company and they’re starting a deposit on us, because we’ve been so late every month with our payments. They’re charging us a total of $156 in three months and we can have that back in a year if we pay on time. All the other bills are consistently late and there’s just no chance in hell we’re going to get DSL this month either.
But I got a full time job (nothing I needed my education for) a few weeks ago, and my boyfriend just got a small raise at his terrible job. I feel very, very lucky. I know a lot of people who are taking part time jobs that students usually do just so they can have something.
Me, I’m doing OK, but the job market for secondary ed teachers is NOT what we were told it would be when we signed up. I’ve been living in a dead man’s town in the Southern Tier of NY, and many teachers have been laid off. It’s taken me 4 years of persistent trying to get a job in Ithaca, where I’m relocating, but the cost of living is much higher, so the old belt will have to be tightened, but quality of life matters to me.
As for my friends, very few of them are in the lucrative careers that an Ivy League education might have afforded them in the past. Even on a teacher’s salary, I am the most financially solvent person in my social circle and have the least debt. Several of my friends are unemployed, underemployed, or are working service jobs that are beneath their skill level and education.
Used to be that parents wanted their kids to eventually make more money than they did, but now, for my generation (Gen X), that seems impossible. My father only had a high school education and he made more than twice what I do now, with two Masters degrees. I find the whole thing massively depressing, but I feel lucky to have a job with benefits when so many of my friends do not.
Me, I’m doing OK, but the job market for secondary ed teachers is NOT what we were told it would be when we signed up. I’ve been living in a dead man’s town in the Southern Tier of NY, and many teachers have been laid off. It’s taken me 4 years of persistent trying to get a job in Ithaca, where I’m relocating, but the cost of living is much higher, so the old belt will have to be tightened, but quality of life matters to me.
As for my friends, very few of them are in the lucrative careers that an Ivy League education might have afforded them in the past. Even on a teacher’s salary, I am the most financially solvent person in my social circle and have the least debt. Several of my friends are unemployed, underemployed, or are working service jobs that are beneath their skill level and education.
Used to be that parents wanted their kids to eventually make more money than they did, but now, for my generation (Gen X), that seems impossible. My father only had a high school education and he made more than twice what I do now, with two Masters degrees. I find the whole thing massively depressing, but I feel lucky to have a job with benefits when so many of my friends do not.
This interesting study suggests that hidden unemployment is not a big factor in the US - but that it is in Oz. I must admit, I found this surprising, since I thought the Bureau of Stats was generally fairly good about producing accurate results (though I know they do count “worked for at least 1 hour last week” as “employed” :rolleyes: )
Anyway, since this poll has already gone international: my experience (as a computer geek, not a law graduate) is fairly similar to Narrad’s - a couple of my friends have lost jobs in the past year, but they got new (often better) ones within a couple of months. The company I work for went through a rough spot a year and a half ago, but recently they’ve been doing really well, and expanding by about 30% this year
Not good. I’m in looking-for-work mode at the moment, since the place I had been working (until the beginning of the month) doesn’t operate from August through December. Now, the people I worked with are all like me: college educated people, most with a background in education, who cannot find a better job than one that is only half the year long (since there are various unpaid breaks between projects) with no insurance. There don’t seem to be any more jobs for aides and paraprofessionals than last year when many were cut. It paints a bleak picture.
Oops, just checked out the actual rate. July 2003 seasonally-adjusted, we’re sitting at 6.2 per cent. It’s been about the same for a year now.
Ringo, how is the concept of “full employment” measured in the US? Getting back to basic macroeconomics, we consider there to be a very low rate of unemployment – say, less than 5 per cent (frictional unemployment) – where the demand for labour is high enough to cause inflationary pressure. At a some point greater than this point of full employment lies “sustainable” full employment, or the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (“NAIRU”).’
I’ve seen NAIRU defined in Australia as around 6 per cent, but my economics knowledge is very much out-of-date. I’d be interested to know how the concept is treated in the US.
** Evil Captor**, our stats are subject to the same flaw: the unemployment rate only measures those “participating” in the jobs market – i.e., those with jobs and those “actively seeking” employment. It doesn’t take into account disillusioned job-seekers who drop out or under-employed workers (i.e., people working casual or part-time jobs because they can’t find full-time work.)
OTOH, the ABS reports the participation rate and its movements.
Very, very badly. Full-time student here, live with mom. Last year she was laid off from a $75k / year job. It took her over a month to find another job, and this one pays barely $40k. The company does metal stamping for other manufacturers; since manufacturing is in a slump, so is her company. The company could not make payroll for the last pay period, even after laying off about 10% of its workforce and cutting the remaining pay by 5%. No one there knows day to day who will come in unemployed the next day :(. Extremely stressful time.
Personally, my company’s revenues are up, but I work in an industry that has an upswing during recessionary times. However, we are cutting payroll like mad and not hiring anyone right now.
Sorry to hear so many people are not doing so well. It seems that many houses are for sale in California not because people cannot afford them, but to turn a profit and buy up. Most of the people I know seem to be doing well, but we do not discuss their personal finances.
Most of my crowd is in the 28-35 range. Most of the ‘Professionals’ are unemployed or in serious fear of it, but the trade guys are doing great. 40% of the tech guys I know are out of work. I know a bunch of unemployeed Marketing and business types. The teachers are doing great though. The Bartenders, Waiters, Carpenters, Drywallers, Landscapers and mechanics are doing great to. It seems like the more education people have the more likely they are to be screwed due to the ‘Over-Qualified’ factor. I don’t know any Doctor or Lawyer types.
No, I didn’t request “no economic theory” outright. What I said was, please don’t post ONLY economic theory. I don’t mind if people discuss how their own situation is mirrored or not mirrored by economic stats in their area, but obviously if people don’t post about what’s going on among the people they know, I don’t have much of a poll here.
Not great. I work soley in R & D for a consultancy and this past friday we were told that we’re going to switch to a four day work week till the end of september (or so…no hard dates given yet) with only 80% of our usual salaries.
R&D expenditure tends to be low in the summer, but it’s really low at the moment.
My wife is nice and busy, she’s a vet, and summer is traditionally a busy time for them.
Things are starting to pick up a little bit. Though my company just got a small amount of funding in the last several weeks, I haven’t gotten a pay check in 14 months. The funding is tied in with a new project, so hopefully that will bring some cash in soon. Most people I know are either unemployed or worried about lay-offs. The Seattle tech market is still pretty sucky, and doesn’t seem like it will really pick up any time soon. I’ve done my stint as a waiter which was the only thing that saved me. I’ve got friends with master’s degrees building retaining walls and driving nails.
I’m in my mid-20’s so this is the first major recession that actually effected me (as opposed to hearing my parents grip about them). But, from talking to some older co-workers and associates, they take a more stoic view of it. They firmly believe life is a roller coaster and there is plenty of ups and downs. They’ve been through all sorts of bad financial times, and it may suck now, but we’ll all eventually come back up.
All I know is that right now I am so sick of eating cheap Costco oatmeal all the time.
But useless. You can find hard luck stories in every economy on the planet, at every time. Let me explain two major problems with trying to judge the economy based on this thread:
It’s self selecting. The type of people who open this thread are going to be disproportionally those who feel they aren’t doing well.
It’s not a random population. The SDMB no doubt has a population that is very, very skewed. There is no doubt a disproportionate number of young people here. A disproportionate number of IT types, of recent college grads or students, etc.
Historically, ‘full employment’ has been determined to be around 5% in the U.S. During the tech bubble, economists re-evaluated it and lowered that value to about 4.5%. It’s currently hovering around 6%. Which is a very good rate. Canada, for example, is about 7.8%, with a similar economic structure (and using the same yardsticks).
Americans think the sky is falling, because they’ve been spoiled by a few years of record-low jobless numbers. As of right now, they’re still lower than the historical average, and yet we keep hearing about how the sky is falling.
Now, since we weren’t supposed to just talk about theory here, here is my situation: I work for one of the largest companies in the world. In our division, we went through a round of layoffs about a year and a half ago, and there’s been essentially a hiring freeze since then except for the odd critical position. We just had our quarterly economic review meeting, at which we learned that sales are exceeding forecasts, and so is profit. So much so that we may all get bonuses this year. Next year, our internal economists are predicting 4% growth in the U.S., and if that growth rate holds we’ll be doing plenty of hiring next year, I’d imagine.
Here in Edmonton, the economy is great. In fact, the TD bank recently posted an economic study which said that if the Edmonton-Calgary corridor were a country, it would have the strongest economy in the world, with the highest per-capita growth and income. So we’ve got nothing to complain about.
Things are about to hit rock bottom. I was laid off in June (Toronto) and have been looking ever since. It’s amazing the amount of jobs that are out there that I am (in their words) “over qualified” for. I don’t care about pay any more…I just want work. Unable to claim employment insurance has meant doing yard work for friends to try and stay afloat but with bills, travelling to and from interviews, and just eating it doesn’t leave much. I am hoping that when the students go back to school I will be able to score some bar shifts to bring in some money.
Good luck to anyone out there in the same boat.
I got a 10% pay cut at the beginning of 2002. Last week, I got that money back.
We thought our company wasn’t going to make it. But we’ve started booming. I’ve been stressed out for two years, and can finally stop eating antacids like candy.
I’m getting by OK, but things around here are pretty stagnant. The automotive companies and their suppliers have laid off a ton of people over the last few years, and they haven’t hired any back yet. The way things are going, I’m starting to wonder if they ever will.
As others have mentioned, the problem isn’t unemployment so much as underemployment. Highly educated guys with years of experience lose their jobs, and they end up taking part-time work because they can’t find anything as good as their last job.
I’m doing great, and so are all my friends. Everyone found good paying jobs. In fact, out of everyone, I’m doing the worst (but I still have a nice place and money for fun stuff) - but that’s my own fault, as I’ve turned down some full-time jobs while I figure out what I want to do. Both my parents are still employed, and will probably be retiring in a few years in their late 50s.