It looks like a falling tide sinks all boats.
Out-of-work Wall Street workers have been on the front pages for months. Auto workers at the Big Three have been struggling for years, and with GM and Chrysler on the verge of a possible bankruptcy and/or bailout their situation is also dire.
Now the so-called knowledge workers are feeling the pinch. Sony is cutting 16,000 workers, and Silicon Valley companies that initially resisted the swooning of the economy are looking to cut costs and shed entry-level positions. As Reuters reported on Tuesday, people in their 20s are finding a college degree is no longer their golden ticket to a dream job in high tech.
Any bright spots? It depends on how you look at it. Of the 30 companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the only ones with stock prices higher than a year ago are Wal-Mart and McDonald’s.
So who is going to face the most job insecurity in 2009: Bankers, autoworkers, or techies?
Post your answer in the comments section, along with any first-hand stories of trouble in your industry.
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Things change and we have to change too.
- Posted by Brian Marchant-CalsynBrian Marchant-Calsyn
Construction is hardest hit but the others will follow. I hope, when this crisis has ended, they will all be on the same level as were farmers have never left, they know how to survive. Maybe they will be appreciated a little more then.
- Posted by petewe gave up. high prices dont control you. banks simply dont have a brain. how many times a bus flip over that it got to be that heavy
- Posted by pencilrmicone1, what’s wrong with you? Gas is cheap and the economy is still nowhere near recovery. Stop blaming “big oil” for all of the economy’s woes. What’s really wrong are corrupt union machines (NOT necessarily the union workers, just the overbloated machines that blackmail businesses and suck them dry to supply union bosses with obscene largesse), greedy managers and executives, and everyone laboring under the false premise that they can “have it all” without working long, hard hours, saving and investing judiciously for the long term, lavishing children with love, not thousands of dollars in toys they use for three months, and “living within one’s means.” THAT is what this country needs but it’s far easier to blame some nameless entity for one’s problems than yourself.
If…no…WHEN I lose my job in the next year (one has to be realistic), I’ll be living off of savings until I find work again, because I didn’t buy the McMansion (though certainly able to do so), didn’t buy the BMW (though again, well within my means), don’t have the 50″ TV and will not be wailing that I may not get the same money as before. That’s called PLANNING AHEAD and BEING A RESPONSIBLE AND REALISTIC ADULT. Yes there are cases where people are hit from left field by illness or other catastrophe, but that is NOT the norm. And anyone who is sitting up to their ears in debt with a houseful of expensive toys and electronics whining about how the economy screwed them over does NOT get my sympathy.
- Posted by MysticI think banker filed will be cut more people in next year.
- Posted by peggy zhongI disagree that we will not be able to live like we do, we just need a new energy source, that is the real challenge, getting big oil out of the way.
- Posted by rmicone1Where did this all start? It started last December, but why wasn’t there any media coverage about how much middle-class families were struggling with the cost of gas prices? Now that big business is also struggling, we are hearing about it all over.
What everyone needs to realize is that our economy was dependent on lower and middle income workers. The Bush administration and oil companies thought they could keep increasing prices. This is all their fault. When Bush took office, he introduced legislation to allow oil companies off-store drilling rights, drilling in Alaska, etc. Americans were clearly against it. So gas prices rise to unthinkable heights, and suddenly it’s introduced again as a rescue effort; a valiant move by the administration to lower prices. In retrospect, it was probably an orchestrated move. What they didn’t realize was that you can only squeeze the little man so much. When we hurt, everyone else does too.
The economic problems our country is facing are a direct result of the hardships of the lower and middle classes. When we don’t spend money, when we can’t afford to pay our mortgages, when we are suffering, the rest of the nation is affected by it. Surely our lawmakers are intelligent enough to realize that, and focus on us in their plan to fix the broken economy.
- Posted by Sally WilsonIf everybody individually started to think positively, then collectively we can solve this problem even though it is so enormous. A virus has literally hit that is monstrous in its scope and everybody got their heads played with. From the littlest guy to the biggest honcho. And some real bad stuff has gone down too. I mean, the latest Wall Street trader scandal leaves you wondering how many more there are, and how much it directly or indirectly contributed to the crisis.
But the way I see it, the only way out of this is positive thinking, and really adopting a “yes we can” attitude and make that America’s mantra for 2009. (Let 2010 take care of itself for now.) If everybody got that into their heads, one by one, state by state, industry by industry, then as a country, then as a world, we build up a collectivity that is stronger economically than we were before. We can fix this thing.
But everybody has to do their part. The mind is a powerful thing. Collective minds, working in unison, I believe, can drop a mountain into the sea.
Marion TD Lewis, Esq. New York
- Posted by Divorce SaloonThis whole union thing really disturbs me. The unions were the ones who got together and made a 40,37.5 or 35 hour week(depending on what country), they fought for paid sick, maternity, special or vacation leave. If you knock the unions out of the equation, expect lower wages, no benefits and a serf like conditions.
I lost my job 5 months ago.. luckily I worked for a German who had wonderful industrial relation skills. Even then, I didn’t get health care (and still don’t have it), really didn’t get much of a layoff bonus .. not even a weeks worth. But he did pay me extra to buy health care (which I spent on the kids dental), let me rollover my vacation to the next year, treated me with respect and gave me ample warning of a layoff (at least 6 months).
This allowed me to save like crazy, cut back on spending from Jan 08, and position me to weather out the storm approaching.
I am not going to work for $7.50 ph (like the bell ringers for the Salvation Army are getting - hang on - aren’t they meant to be looking out for the poor???) What the hell is going on here? People can’t survive on $7.50 ph… they can’t afford food or housing.
Hungry people become angry people. Greece and Thailand are the recent ones. This is a time that will see hungry, desperate people become very, very angry. As they should be. We live in very interesting times.
- Posted by sceptic anneI am fortunate to work overseas in Africa in oil and gas despite oil falling 2/3’s in value from it’s high. In Africa the people have been without employment as we know it for their entire lives. They survive and they are unbelievably happy. They do want a better material life but the difference between us and them is stunning. They smile continuously, we rarely can generate a real one. The advertising noise in our country is staggering (you should go away for a year or more to a less material place and then come back and you will be overwhelmed at how much you are sold to–it’s persistent and endless and deafening). We want the next best thing never being satisfied for long with what we just got–it’s always the better house, the better car, the better job while we as a nation become excessively obese while they always feel hunger. And they (most of the rest of the world) envy us. Why? I envy the guy selling dvds/phone cards/books/colas all day and night in the traffic in Africa and when I am sitting in my car and don’t buy he looks me in the eye and smiles and touches my soul.
- Posted by RicochetWhat about the other knowledge workers? I’m a college senior studying ecology and Natural Resource Management. Does anyone have any idea what kind of opportunities a guy like me can expect?
- Posted by RyanThere’s a lot of mindless panic going on that has certainly affected all business. Massive federal action
- Posted by schmendrichasn’t been able to stem the problems precisely because of
fear and uncertainty. Yes, construction is a primary hit.
And hanging over all is the high foreclosure rate in housing around the country. The FDIC Chairperson wants the government to tackle these foreclosures and try to keep people in their homes as a primary base for the economy. So far, without success. But I thinks she is on the right track.
This is your online punch in the head…I have to say that principles of sustainable living are starting to look pretty good right now…but here are a few thoughts that no one is addressing.
#1 I think we should say adios to all the companies that couldn’t make it on their own. If we took the money that we used to bail out banks and business’ and invested it into NEW enterprise and innovation our economy would be UNBELIEVABLY healthy right now. Pouring money into established business’ that can’t be sustained is utterly ridiculous, profitless and pointless. All financial assistance should be toward NEW innovative producers and manufacturing.
#2 Your lifestyles are not sustainable. Right now, depending on your income you are served by anywhere between 100-200 ‘energy slaves’ (natural resources frittered and burned away to support your computer, technology, food resources and manufacturing).
If you have ever been to a science center they have a energy awareness experiment that uses a bicycle to operate a light bulb…no matter how fast you pedal you can’t get sustained illumination (unless you are Lance Armstrong) this is only just the beginning of the ‘energy slaves’ you never appreciate but that work for you every day. Unless we move away from this model of energy dependence, we wont have any resources left…even if we don’t move away from this model there will never be a middle class like there has been in the past. It is not a sustainable model…even if some new technology we could come up with a way to keep all your ‘energy slaves’ operating at the level you have become accustomed too.
#3 So that leaves manufacturing OUT in the cold because the energy consumption for each manufactured object has always been a subsided by your ‘energy slaves’. The actual complete cost of manufacturing is NEVER addressed in the US. The actual cost is the cost of depleting the energy resource, smelting the steel, making the plastic, forming the wires, etc. This process has always been subsidized in the US. We have NEVER had to pay the actual value for anything we have ever manufactured.
#4 Not as much energy = not as much technology…when the ‘energy slaves’ are gone because we have used up the natural resources what and who is going to power and purchase your vast technical miracles? Nobody.
I mean, I could go on and on, but PEOPLE, you better wake up to the new reality and it doesn’t include your middle class lifestyle anymore…this is a system crash of our economy, manufacturing and way a life…they might be able to prop it up for another 5 years, but I doubt it. We have known about this for 30 years and done nothing because our current political and economic system prevents us from doing what is the right thing for the most people. Good luck to you all…I hope you start preparing for the things to come.
- Posted by KikiI could afford the XX-th century, I am not quite sure I can afford the XXI-st.
- Posted by Lenny