Ferran is based in Orlando, further north. I've heard they shed a large chunk of their employees too though. Their residential group (electrical, HVAC, & plumbing) were especially gutted and the commercial group has been keeping them afloat.

I know one of the brothers, he has some very cool Porsches (including a 906) and is a very good driver.

Byron

Please keep that crap in the political pit where it belongs before you spoil this thread by getting it relegated there.

Ian

My whole IT dept was either let go or outsourced a couple of months ago (the beginning of the end for most in the corporation I believe). I'm going to be OK, but still haven't decided what to do next. I've also got quite a few friends & acquantances that I used to work with earlier in my career with two of the largest banks (IT)...the writing is on the wall for them too. Statistics can be VERY misleading, and although employment "may" be up overall, most of us don't even figure in the "unemployment" stats. It's been rough these past few years...

+1. Byron should know where the bile threads belong by now.

I got let go 5 weeks ago by an 80 year company that manufactors building materials. I'd been there 9 years and tripled my business. I wasn't costing them a dime, but yet they panic'd and let 1/2 the sales staff go. Now half the country isn't being covered or is supposed to be covered by who's left. Then they will have cause to fire them because they weren't servicing the customers. Fuchin idiots.

T.C.

Last summer, we circled the wagons on the wife's real estate brokerage- Leased the office space, slashed advertising and other overhead, and moved to our home office. Staff is all part time agents and we are paying the bills.

I run a privately owned contract manufacturing business. Sold off one division and shut down another. Had to lay off 19 people a while ago. Looking to sublease 10K sf of shop/office space, actually a much smaller building would make sense for the existing business. The owner is considering selling the building, but the commercial market is getting pretty soft.

We have been trying to hire people for two months. They work 3-4 days and not show up again. Then they come by and want their paycheck or me to advance them some money.


My brother has been laying people off. He is in the housing industry.

I talked last weekend to a guy who owns a commercial RE development company. They build large hotels, apartment complexes, etc. Financing has dried up and in the current environment, they are unable to proceed with any projects. He will be cutting his company by half soon.

To show how bad things are, one of his large clients has 5 large buildings (40+ stories) where construction has stopped in mid-air. It is crazy to leave a 45-story building half-built and exposed to the elements, but the money has stopped dead.

The 3Q prelim GDP data showed real (inflation-adjusted) consumer spending fell -3.1% YOY. That, my friends, is worse than in 2002 or 1991 (didn't even fall to 0%), worse than 1982 (fell appx -1%), and equal to or worse than 1974 (fell appx -2.8%). And October consumer spending was even worse than September. We are in the worst consumer recession since the Second World War. Yet the stock market's PE is still about 3-4 points higher than the low point of the 1974/75 bear market. There are some reasons why the market arguably should have a PE higher than 1974, but those reasons are rapidly disappearing. At this point the only clear reasons left are that interest rates are lower today, and inflation is also lower. But are interest rates really lower, considering that credit is simply not available for a large swath of the economy? And while inflation is rapidly disappearing, if it is replaced by deflation that is not necessarily an improvement.

Commercial construction is rolling over hard now. A neighbor is having a shop built. The guys who dug the foundation said they haven't had a job in over 5 weeks.

Another fellow has been steadily downgraded over the past year. He went from foreman at $23/hr, to concrete finisher at $16/hr, to no job 2 weeks ago.

The retailers/wholesalers catering to the construction industry rarely have more than one customer (me) within. Lumber yards, hardwood supply, HVAC supply, and plywood/cabinet wholesale are all dead as night.

It is quite ugly out there, but it could be a lot worse.

Just received a call from an ex-boss Thursday. He along with 5 other 'higher ups' got their walking papers. He had been with the Co. 23 years. Also we have laid off 14 at our R&E facility. Ten other chemists were offer the voluntary deal. A VP has set up a conference call for tomorrow morning to quell the rumor mill. I hope I'm fairly safe as I'm the only tech rep in NE. I also, for job security sakes, took on the sales responsibilities. And I am NO salesman. Don't like it, don't want to do it. But it's better than sleeping under a bridge :(

My father's friend owns a machine shop that does work for Chrysler. They asked all salaried staff to take a 10% pay cut, if they took the cut, they stayed, if they didn't, they were fired. Tough times here in the rust belt...

We're cutting the dead wood, but we're actively hiring to replace it. I'd almost call it business as usual. But then, we're gov't contractors in an industry that's only loosely related to the economy at large (submarine training). The coming years will probably bring reduced defense spending, which will probably be bad for us, though.

Dan

Layed off in April
 

I was layed off in April after 8 years working for Merck. Funny, when I started in 2000 and saw how people were treated and how bustling the site was I thought I had a job there until retirement. After the Vioxx debacle and several late stage 3 drug failures coupled with a highly competitive pharm. industry (not to mention upper management having a case of anal cranial inversion) I managed to land on my feet working for GE in the power industry. I feel very fortunate to have been out of work for only a month. It has to really suck out there to try to find a job when every time you turn on the news there is another big company sending thousands of people to the street.