wow. layoff news is staggering.

[vash]

NYC is laying off 23000+ employees???!!! you see the list of state employees getting the boot? thousands. how long till we hit bottom?

[jyl]

NYC and NY state are in terrible shape. Very dependent on Wall Street, and that industry is losing so much money that it won't be paying corporate income tax for years. Will take years (decade+?) to earn back what was and will be lost in 2008 and 2009. Not to mention the whack to individual income tax revenues, with the huge layoffs.

I expect London and indeed the UK in general is in the same boat.

[Hugh R]

So John, bottom line it for me. I've lost 1/2 of my investments in stocks. I was in about 20 well diversified mutual funds that didn't all hold stocks in the same things. Energy, housing, financials, emerging markets, asia, australia, biotech, etc. A big mix, now with about 50:50 on stocks and cash. Should I bail completely to cash? I've got 10 years to "retirement"

[dd74]

Try Western Europe. All you have to do is watch Bloomberg at around 10 PST and see Europe is suffering too.

[dd74]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

Should I bail completely to cash? I've got 10 years to "retirement"

Not to interrupt your question to John, but I know a woman who was "gifted" a good amount of money from her mother's estate, and stuck the whole thing in a savings account - nothing fancy. This was three years ago. She hasn't once touched it.

Today, she still has all the money.

[vash]

if the post office goes to 5 working days. how many postal workers get walking papers?

[dd74]

Originally Posted by vash

if the post office goes to 5 working days. how many postal workers get walking papers?

Don't know. Our postman said no one's being fired. But at the same time, the USPS doesn't plan to hire anyone for the next 2 years.

[Wickd89]

Cash out and count your blessings.

I moved 90% of my investments to money markets and bonds and stop the bleeding 9 months ago with a 20-25% lost in equity.
I could not be happier..
I am now just waiting, waiting, waiting,.... hope the bottom is close now.
I do not want to loose my job, as many are experiencing (regardless of industry and personal ability)..

[dmcummins]

Personally I'm still holding. I wasn't smart enough to bail a year ago so I figure with my timing I'll sell close to the bottom. But I retired in October 2007 so maybe you should do the oposite of what I do. I did go alittle more conservative in my investments back then so that saved me some. But I could buy a very nice house with the difference in my net worth.

I'm also not helping to fund the government, I'll pay around $40,000 less in taxes this year than when I was working. But my leaving ment a couple of other guys are still working that needed the job.

[Zef]

Sad......
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/01/08/first-quarter-layoffs-selection-of-job-cuts-by-major-companies/

[turbo6bar]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

So John, bottom line it for me. I've lost 1/2 of my investments in stocks. I was in about 20 well diversified mutual funds that didn't all hold stocks in the same things. Energy, housing, financials, emerging markets, asia, australia, biotech, etc. A big mix, now with about 50:50 on stocks and cash. Should I bail completely to cash? I've got 10 years to "retirement"

Wild ass guess here, since every situation is different:
It may take as much as one decade to get back to previous stock market highs. It took 5-6 years from 2001 to 2007 (trough to peak). I do not support a full cash position, unless you have a plan in place to absorb that cash in the event of inflation. I'm sitting on cash now until the right RE deal presents. Cash is good in the short to mid-term, but long-term you really need to focus on cash flow from assets, dividends, etc.

http://layoffdaily.com/ for those looking for a depressant.

[drew1]

Tues a week ago I went back to work, now there are more layoffs coming next week. Some of those are folks who stayed when I was laid off.

Think I'm getting to stay, feel for the folks. Not much out there.

[Wickd89]

Originally Posted by turbo6bar

Wild ass guess here, since every situation is different:
It may take as much as one de I do not support a full cash position, unless you have a plan in place to absorb that cash in the event of inflation. I'm sitting on cash now until the right RE deal presents. Cash is good in the short to mid-term, but long-term you really need to focus on cash flow from assets, dividends, etc.

I agree. I think that most of us that moved to a cash position, fully intend on reinvesting when the time is right. I hope to just stick with real estate for cash, and let the retirement related accounts in the market.. Very little in fun speculation...at least for now..

[cgarr]

So when are all you guys going to start investing/buying again? When the price goes up, The most foolish thing was having bought all that pricey stuff years ago. Buy now, its cheap!

[Zeke]

Unemployment in Long Beach is hitting 11%. I try not to drive down any residential streets in mid town. Nothing but guys standing around smoking a drinking on every block. I read somewhere that the OC was worse off.

[Wickd89]

Originally Posted by milt

Unemployment in Long Beach is hitting 11%. I try not to drive down any residential streets in mid town. Nothing but guys standing around smoking a drinking on every block. I read somewhere that the OC was worse off.

Very possible. Many mortgage and home sale related businesses were based in OC. Higher unemployment, but not the kind that stand on corners..

Funny thing is back in the early 90's, the malls were empty.
During this recession, you go to South Coast plaza or Mission Viejo Mall, and they are packed. Everything is on sale, but still people are buying... Very odd...

[azasadny]

We're at "ground zero" here in SE Michigan. It's bad and getting worse every day...

[BGCarrera32]

Originally Posted by vash

NYC is laying off 23000+ employees???!!! you see the list of state employees getting the boot? thousands. how long till we hit bottom?

You're looking at this all wrong. The fact that NYC is actually laying off 23,000+ and can maintain critical services to some level and general operating function speaks volumes about how bloated government is in general. MN is talking about laying off 1,100 over the next 2 years and I'm probably the only guy actually saying "amen".

But at least the governor of MN has appointed a "bailout czar" who will be responsible for divvying up our cut of the federal bailout money.

Bailout Czar. Think about it.

[Normy]

I will say this first: News of layoffs breeds layoffs.

-I work for Fedex, and I am VERY scared right now. They have threatened to furlough pilots for the past few months, and it is obvious that we are over-manned.

The System Chief Pilot, Orlando Rosado told us this in emails. He's fighting the bean-counters, who think we should have already furloughed people, but he knows that we have two new airplane types coming into our fleet [757 and 777], and the transition will require a lot of people.

At the same time, when you are 79 people from the bottom of a seniority list that has 4679 on it....you can see why I am more than just a little bit concerned-!

Fedex has NEVER furloughed ONE pilot in 36 years. The corporate mind-set is that furloughing pilots is an admission of ERROR. "We screwed up", per se, and this place doesn't like errors AT ALL. When you join this company, they tell you if you work hard and have a good attitude, we WILL take care of you. This is called the "Purple Promise", and everyone at Fedex is indoctrinated in this. I've worked at four cargo airlines now, and the rampers who load/unload the airplanes I fly at Fedex are very different from the people who did the same manual labor at those other airlines. When I walk off the plane carrying my bag, the dollars-per-hour person on the stairs always says hello to me. Fedex fires anyone that is less than friendly.

This corporate culture is pretty much unique, and I recommend anyone that is unemployed immediately go to www.fedex.com and look for careers. Go to the bottom of the page, and find the small gray link that says "careers". If I am laid-off, I will try to get a job as a ramper for Fedex at Fort Lauderdale airport. That and work jobs in local bars- Fort Lauderdale has no shortage of these!

I live cheap; I think I can survive a two-year furlough and still make the payments on my house without hitting my savings to any real extent.

N!

[onewhippedpuppy]

Cessna is laying off over 4,000 (about 25%) of it's workforce, Boeing about 500, so far my company has laid off 500 with more to come 2/6. I anticipate about 25% for us as well. Fortunately everyone is still short on engineers so I'm relatively safe, but it's still a bit unsettling.