What Slow Down

The I.P (International Paper) Mill just shut down Friday. 550 people lost there jobs ! This is in a town next to us. So yes it is happening, just maybe not to you yet and hopefully not ever. But we are definitely seeing it. I think it will pop up in different places at different times. But there is a weirdness factor to it though. 550 people without jobs but the nicest restaurant in town is packed. Go figure. I guess they figure if they're gonna go down they're gonna go down eating good.:banana02:

I appreciate it, a lot of it has to do with the fact we live close to each other and see much of the same.


I haven't been to Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge in quite a while, I was wondering how they're doing. I do know people that work there in restaurants but haven't seen them to talk to them.

My son works in sporting goods and it's hunting season and he's still been off a whole lot. As a matter of fact he's even off on Black Friday which really surprised me.

I work for a national LTL trucking company and we're laying off and having people sit at the house for a week or so at a time. Business is down about 25%.

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"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence"
Robert Frost

Well that makes sense really... most of us would see all the people at Walmart as a sign of being busy and good economy... probably most people here aren't shopping Macy's, The Bon Ton, Elder Beermans, Kohl's, etc regularly. I mean, I am sure we occasion them, but there is no way I could shop at Macy's. We were there a week ago and I about laughed at their "50% off" 200 dollar coats for ladies.

So for most of us it's going to look like the economy is booming because more people are shopping where us "po folk" do.

I agree on Aldi's. I just got back from there and there were Lincolns, Caddy's and Lexus' (Lexi?) in the parking lot. I thought it was funny. I mean it was JAM PACKED. I know it's the biggest grocery week of the year... but these are people who normally aren't at Aldi's.

The Dollar Store was jammed packed and so was Wal Mart.

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I am looking for a job, and so are a lot of my friends. And a lot of people have taken retirements a lot earlier than they planned on. Several local restuarants and stores have failed. Construction is really bad, and a lot of those folks are self employed, and they don't show up in the unemployment statistics. I think we are just starting a very bad time.

Gas is down in price, I haven't checked lately but useage was down even with the price drop.

Wal-Mart might be crowded but are the crowds buying anything? Shopping is entertainment for many, especially small towns. That's where you go and meet people, I can't explain it. Look at the checkouts and see if they're buying basketfulls or just handfulls.

How many trillions have been gutted from retirement accounts? That plays heavily on people when it comes to spending money today, especially the 45 and older group that has the money to spend.

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"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence"
Robert Frost

Every construction equipment rental company I pass, is PACKED FULL with unrented JLG, scissor lifts and heavy earth moving equipment.

A year and a half ago, these lots were almost empty. Been that way for over 6 months.

Spook: Construction is really bad, and a lot of those folks are self employed, and they don't show up in the unemployment statistics. .

ARE You Serious? I never knew that! Wow talk about the unemployment figures being off. Half the people I know are self employed. Or were self employed

People were buying stuff... but it was food. People will keep buying food. Because of our road STILL being too snowy for our van, I had to drive the 4x4 (it's a stick and my wife don't like them) and take her shopping. The cost of food is atrocious.

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Snow!!! I'm sick of winter already! I did see snow on the road the last couple of weeks. Coming in Thurs. night it snowed heavy all through Virginia and into Tennessee but it stopped just before home. What are you doing now that you're not driving? Ever pursue that gov't job?
I would agree people are buying necessities. Food is up there but they have been running a few deals lately.

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"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence"
Robert Frost

IP is where dh worked....at a box plant. He talked to a buddy of his the other day that is still there and they are laying off more. One thing I did notice in Charlotte the other day is a LOT of the building they are doing is with wood instead of steel. We've been in this area for 13 years and until recently anything in downtown that went up was steel.

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Ginnie..
http://ginniequilts.blogspot.com/
You can say what you want about the South,
But you never hear of anyone retiring and moving North.

Ya, I was a quality manager for a supplier to the automotive industry here in NE Indiana and was laid off in April when America Axel went out on strike - then gas prices hit an all time high and folks stopped driving the big SUVs and trucks we made parts for. Soooooo....I was off for eight months before finding a job with a nonprofit. It's almot 20K less but we can still pay the mortgage.

I'm very thankful to have a job.

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Some things are just worth waiting for

thinking about this thread last night, i happened to see some unemployment figures from 1939. they had 17.2% unemployment! things may be a tad tight, but we aren't there yet.

yet.

My town boomed on nothing but real estate and construction. All that is gone.

I was lucky enough to get a job at the grocery store. DH's business is gone and he can't find a job. He was at the local employment office yesterday and they had "NO" jobs of any kind. The lady said everyone was just moving out and leaving.

We get at least 4 foreclosures a week in a county that has a year round population of about 8000. Of course we have a ton of second homes. The foreclosures are everything from $1million homes to second homes to primary residences.

The ski area is laying off.

Its bad here and I think its going to get a lot worse.

you forget they count unemployment differently than back then, It is lot higher(maybe double in actuality) than what the government reports.

it is way more than a "tad tight" for a lot of people right now. They had a story on the news how executive chefs in Portland, OR are vying for kitchen help positions(gah, talk abotu a hell's kitchen situation!). We have people with college and master's degrees begging us for a HOUSECLEANING job--when people like that are calling us, we know it's getting bad!

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THE BEGINNING IS NEAR
5-star double-rated astronavagatrix earth girl

There has been little to no new home building or commercial building here for some time now, even many of the day laborers have left the area for greener pastures. About the only construction going on is the tax payer funded government projects.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...nkrupt24m.html

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/no...hire-300-soon/

then there's this. hiring 300 now, 200 more come spring. no matter they are all minimum wage/ no benefit type jobs.

just what we need, another bloated, wasteful "resort."

And nothing but bad things for the economy. When it gets to a point where folks with money are so full of fear that they quit spending, then the economy is really going to be in trouble.

Construction hasn't stopped completely because some individuals/companies have approved construction loans that were made before October and they haven't broken ground yet.

Remember, construction doesn't happen immediately after the construction loan is signed because it needs to go through a bunch of steps -a project pipeline (stuff like design time, site testing, design approval, county approval etc) before anything gets built.

However, at some point you won't see any new building projects starting because the banks are still holding onto their money and not loaning it to individuals and/or other banks. Yes, the Banks may have gotten big bucks from the government to loosen up credit, but the banks are NOT loaning their part of the bailout money to anyone.

You may see a house go up here and there. However, larger construction projects like a small shopping mall, an office building or a medical center usually require financing from 2 or more banks and those projects aren't getting financing right now because banks no longer trust each other.

If the banks don't start financing projects soon then you will start seeing a lot of construction, architectural, engineering firms go out of business because they don't have any income and they can't pay their people.

deb
in wi

The bulk of building permits issued in my county this year were for driveways where the state widened a highway. About the only construction going on in Michigan are government projects. But now funding for those is drying up. It isn't a slowdown here, it's a total stop.