How's the economy ...

[butterfly77]

where you live, are we in a depression yet? Does anyone you know feel like they are better off or worse off financially since the criminals have taken over the government.

[brmdp3123]

1. Economy's great where I am-in Virginia.

Unemployment in the county is less than 3%.

[AX10]

2. Thank you Mark Warner!

:kick:

[x50600]

8. great

Its going pretty good here. But i feel bad for anyone in detroit.

[AX10]

16. I know, GM executives are very greedy.

[undergroundpanther]

3. I am

on SSI So I'll feel a bigger difference real soon I guess.
The cost of food,gas etc. has become much higher.A bottle of plain old not fancy shampoo $3.99. And in my area alot of for sale signs have sprung up around homes out here,people are moving away.I live in my moms house and she lives in a "nice suburb". We lived here before it was nice and a trendy place for yuppies to move in to feel prestigious' We have alot of new "show off" developments that reek of ostentatious cheap made overpriced generic houses in cul de sacs with 2 Suburban assault vehicles in every garage.. We are the real"locals"(the real locals out here are die hard Dem's the newbies are republicans) We lived here when it was "country" as in fields and cows and woods and no mall except for going into "the city" as going to suburbs of Baltimore to a strip mall.Housing costs out here are Wayyy overpriced.(its for people scared to live in the country but like to tell themselves they are.)Our house originally when we got it cost the price of a car these days it came with a half acre land around it.It's worth I am guesstimating..over 150 k now and it's not a big house or new.
So yeah I have seen changes.

[brmdp3123]

18. $3.99 for shampoo???

Jeez, I pay 99 cents.

[yourout]

4. I think the economy is ok here in Wis but.

numbers are very misleeding. The unemployment percentage does not include those whos benefits have run out but are not employed. Also peoples real wages have erroded significantly since the Clinton years due to decreased wages, increased food and fuel prices. So essentially people are working more while earning less.

[stillcool]

5. i know of no one...

who feels 'better off' since the coup of 2000. While i don't know how much of my friends and family members insecurity is due to a financial situation, the horizon is looking bleak and gives one pause when considering any future plans.

[losdiablosgato]

23. I think we will be in recession by 3rd quarter next year.

It will be nothing big, but a lot of little things that do it. Higher interest rates, the housing bubble popping or at least deflating, higher gas, higher electricity, higher heating, JOBS MOVING OVER SEAS, and more and more people feeeling it and getting worried. It will be interesting to see how the retail sales are for this Christmas season. I think you will see low end retailers do OK, but the middle end and high end will bleed. It this happens then consumers are voting with their wallets, and the are voting caution.

[flamin lib]

6. In Dallas/Ft Worth

Added real estate rant.

and 4 years ago about 10,000 telecom jobs went to China, mine among them. Texas is among the more "robust" states for job growth, but the new jobs are entry level clerical mostly in the medical arena. Hard to replace a $50k engineering or manufacturing job with a clerk typist's income.

Airlines are filing bankruptcy, auto mfgs are following suit, Ford will lay off 4000 this month. The Administration is measuring growth by GDP which is heavily influenced by the rise in energy costs and petro/chem profits. It's a false measure--every time the numbers look bad they find a new measure . . .

Went into real estate to start a new career. Guess what? In Texas RE income is down 30% in the last three years for all levels of agents. Newbies, established and icons all alike--down 30%. Partly due to a soft market (here) and partly due to extreme competition among us out of work professionals.

[justabob]

22. It took me 4 months to find a part time job in Dallas

I couldn't even get a job in a restaurant (my job of last resort) with 10 years of experience. I went to dozens of restaurants, they all told me they had hundreds of applications and couldn't possibly hire anyone else. I finally got work on a college campus as a tutor and we are only allowed to work 18.5 hours a week. I have seen some Xmas help wanted signs, but they are few and far between. Try living on only 700 a month.... I am hanging onto the crumbling edge of a deep abyss with my bloody finger tips. *sigh*

[Extend a Hand]

7. not so great here in SW Ohio

We are still doing ok right now *BUT*

Delphi is in trouble. GM isn't doing to great.

The company I work for is offshoring software jobs to India just as fast as they can. We're just hoping things hold together for just a couple more years for us.

And we just got our new contract rate for natural gas and it has doubled since last year to 1.58/ccf (starting in Dec).

[Greyhound]

9. Very hard to say. Pretty low unemployment, but the numbers have

been massaged for so long who the hell knows if there is any relation to reality. All or the jobs I see listed are entry level or pay far less than market.
This is Greyhound, reporting from the desert southwest, John.

[SammyWinstonJack]

10. Can't remember where I heard this but, it goes something like this,

"A recession is when your neighbor is out of work, a depression is when you are out of work".

[Yupster]

14. Last time I heard it, was 25 years ago

in a Reagan-Carter debate.

Reagan said

"recession is when your neighbor loses his job, depression is when you lose your job and recovery is when President Carter loses his job."

Pretty good line for a debate. Still remember it 25 years later. I'm sure he didn't make it up himself.

[SammyWinstonJack]

15. Oh my! I didn't know that. Well I certainly didn't mean to quote Reagan.

:puke: :spank:

[mtnester]

11. Here are Ohio's most recent numbers on unemployment, by county and

major cities:

http://jfs.ohio.gov/releases/unemp/OhioCivilianLaborForceEstimates.pdf

[brmdp3123]

19. Looks like things have improved a little in the past year.

That's good news.

[onethatcares]

12. Left Coast of Florida checking in

Tampa/St. Pete. If it wasn't for the construction industry, we'd be in a deep recession. I've been here since 77 and don't know where the folks that are buying 250K houses are working, they sure as hell ain't snowbirds.

[Yupster]

13. Unemployment down to 3.4 % here

Companies holding job fairs hundreds of miles away because they can't find labor.

If you don't have a job, head for West Texas because the oil patch is starving for workers right now.

[skipos]

17. not very good in MI. nt

[Nabia2004]

20. Unemployment is HIGH

The official U.S. unemployment rate last month was 5.1 percent. Washington state 5.6, with the Seattle area on the rise. The numbers are misleading bullshit.

This is just my observation. I posted part of this in another thread. It has been the employers market for a few years, but even more so now. Officially, the unemployment rate is going down, yet the number of experienced workers coming to me for low paying entry level jobs is steadily going up.

I just spent the week interviewing job applicants. This is a semiannual hiring, and the number of people seeking work is up approximately 50 percent over last year, 25 percent from 9 months ago.

The tone of the job market has changed also (at least in domestic health-care). People are desperate. In a quote "regular" year, the number of no-shows to job interviews is an annoying 5 to 1. Now it is the opposite, nearly everyone is showing up, and they are serious about wanting work, almost begging.

This is the worst I've seen it in my 25 years. Its really rather depressing to see.


http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2005/10/17/daily15.html?from_rss=1

[butterfly77]

25. Outsourcing...

and some more of bush's lies. When the numbers come out each month he throws out Elaine cho and Snowe to tell some more lies,about new jobs
but the people know.

[butterfly77]

21. Terrible here in Michigan

[lonestarnot]

24. Housing market pooping out here.

4 houses on the block on my street. Interesting counting days until sale.

[butterfly77]

26. After the announcement today about the 30,000 jobs lost

I am quite sure it will be getting worse, in more ways than one Bush's trickle down is slowly trickling away jobs. The more people out of work the more other businesses suffer. People without jobs will own buy the things they need most. Happy holidays