Trading Places

Lost my job, improved my health

This is the first in a series of personal accounts about how people are surviving the recession. The writers are contributors to Associated Content.

By Meaghan Ringwelski

The auto industry’s problems are nothing new to the people of metro Detroit. The economy’s impact on Michigan hit close to home more than a year ago, when the small Plymouth company I’d worked for closed.

My co-workers and I saw it coming. Microdine, our small-parts distribution company, was struggling badly. As 2007 drew to a close, it was becoming obvious we would have no choice but to shut our doors.

I experienced what so many others in the Detroit area were going through: watching a company, despite cutting as many corners as possible, fall victim to the hideous state of the local economy. Driving away from work on that final day at the end of February 2008, I knew I was going to have my work cut out for me in finding a new job.

At the same time, the news around the country grew bleaker. The economy became one of the focal points of the presidential election season, and I began drawing unemployment. Knowing that it would take a while to find a new job, I decided to make the best of the situation and began figuring out ways to improve my lifestyle for myself and my two children.

Rather than dwelling on the depressing news stories and stump speeches or wringing my hands at the desolate job listings in the Detroit Free Press, I decided to keep busy with some self-improvement activities. In the past, I’d never paid too much attention to watching my budget; but out of necessity, I began learning how to stretch a dollar. I clipped many coupons and hunted down deals. No penny went unaccounted-for.

Ford job cuts spread

Ford UK is to cut around 850 jobs by May and review its previously agreed pay offer as it grapples with the economic impact hitting the car industry, the company said on Thursday.

The news comes a week after the automaker said it was cutting some 2,500 white-collar jobs and 1,200 jobs at Ford Motor Credit. If you’re a Ford employee, tell us how the cuts are affecting you.

Who’s got it worse — bankers, autoworkers, or techies?

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.

from Summit Notebook:

Diller to profitable companies: Lay off the layoffs

IAC Chief Executive Barry Diller took several groups to task at the Reuters Media Summit, but he reserved special disgust for CEOs at profitable companies who add to the country's rising unemployment rate.

Also targeted by the former Hollywood executive were "incredibly, shockingly stupid" Big 3 auto executives, the Internet's strange and growing dictionary, and Hollywood's lack of creativity.

Diller said companies had a higher obligation, especially in tough times like these:

"The idea of a company that's earning money, not losing money, that's not, let's say 'industrially endangered,' to have just cutbacks so they can earn another $12 million or $20 million or $40 million in a year where no one's counting is really a horrible act when you think about it on every level. First of all, it's certainly not necessary. It's doing it at the worst time. It's throwing people out to a larger, what is inevitably a larger unemployment heap for frankly no good reason."

A few seconds later, he added:

"It's not that you don't want to earn as much money as you can -- it is your obligation, of course -- but companies have obligations beyond that and they certainly have obligations beyond that at certain times, in the times in which they operate. And they also certainly ought to know that meeting and beating expectations is probably yesterday's game and it will be increasingly so, which would be by the way very healthy for companies. Running a company that meets and beats expectations, and that runs their company accordingly, are companies that I would question why anyone would invest in."

Diller was equally confounded by the top three U.S. auto executives, who recently were criticized for separately flying corporate jets to Washington before hearings to request a $25 billion taxpayer bailout.