...feeling recession's chill: U.S. service sector shrank for the first time in five years

[El Pinko]

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080217/news_lz1b17recess.html


Local businesses feeling recession's chill

U.S. service sector shrank for the first time in five years

By Penni Crabtree
STAFF WRITER

February 17, 2008

If the looming recession had its own song, Mehul Sheth might be humming it to the tune of “Dry Bones.”

....

In Sheth's world, the floundering economy and the high price of oil are connected to the amount of air travel consumers do, the amount of travel is connected to the amount of airplane maintenance needed, and the amount of maintenance is connected to the amount of specialty chemicals and materials that clients order from Sheth's San Diego aircraft maintenance supply company, VMS Aircraft.

In San Diego, as indeed across the United States and around the world, the fragile financial interconnectedness of things, taken for granted in good times, stands out starkly when talk turns to recession.

And the steady stream of bad news – the housing slump, the credit crunch and stagnant employment – weighs on the psyches of businesses, workers and consumers.




Damn, McJobs are disappearing?

Never mind about all the millions of manufacturing sector jobs that actually paid DECENT WAGES and have evaporated NON-STOP, ever since the doddering old shitbag Reagan first dragged his worthless carcass into the White House, right? I mean, that couldn't POSSIBLY have anything to do with why the top 10% are rolling in money and the bottom 50% are gasping for air...

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. Not that there's any connection at all,

but I just saw a bit on the tube about record forclosures - 7500 just in Atlanta, just in February.

LOVE that republican economy.

[InkAddict]

2. Repaying those hefty non-dischargeable Federal Student Loans

that were signed with the hope of lifting oneself out of poverty or just breaking even in the job market is going to get pretty dicey. Parents and students alike have lost jobs, homes, and, oy veh, now McJobs are vanishing too?