How bad is the economy?
 

The media says unemployment is high and work is hard to come by. I need a bathroom added to an apt building. I've sent e-mails and left phone messages for about 7 or 8 remodelers and contractors over the last couple of days. Not a single one has called me back. I thought people would be anxious for work. Apparently not.
Two people I talked to in person have looked at the job.

Most of the contractors left are good at what they do, and busy.

Our household is fully employed, including 2 teens and a 22 year old.

I don't know how bad the economy is.
Why is the Dow dropping when a bunch of big banks and companies are reporting profits?

Because the stock market no longer has any relationship to anything resembling reality.

I recently had a small tile job in a little bathroom that I had managed to neglect doing for almost 20 years. Finally SWMBO insisted I get it done. This was a little tub-toilet room that needed a floor area of about 35 sq. feet tiled, and a new toilet installed. I ran an ad on Craigslist. Described the job well. I said all you have to do is pull the old toilet, set the tile using fast-set mortar, install the new toilet, I'll do the grout and sealing. Easy one day job if I did it myself, a good pro could do it in 4 hours. I offered to help with the grunt (pun intended) work on the toilets. Offered 120 bucks cash figuring 8 hours at 15 dollars an hour but knowing it wouldn't take a pro near that long. I asked for local references. I got 22 replies overnight, all with references. The guy I hired drove 45 miles one way and was happy to get the work. It took him 3 hours total including cutting tile for baseboards. He had had his own sub contractor business and did all the install work for Home Depot during the boom. They'd gradually cut him off and finally dumped him due to the slump. He had to lay off 15 employees. He did a great job and was happy to have the work. Interestingly, I got several angry emails accusing me of taking advantage of out of work tile setters. I presume these were from those who'd rather sit on the couch and blame the Messicans than actually go out and earn some money.
It's picking up a bit now, but not much. Most of the people who have work are doing jobs on repo houses that are being snapped up by bottom feeders.

People with necessary skills are in demand right now. If you have some very special skills that are unique to the oil business you should check out the Career sites at any of the major oil companies. They are all hiring.

There are lots of really nice jobs out there if you have the proper skill set, but a lot of companies want to only hire someone who can do the job RIGHT NOW. I can't say that I blame them; it is their money they are paying.

But there are some jobs out there that only require a little training if you are a very smart person to begin with.

The worst part about working for most oil companies is that you either have to live in Houston on in a small town where the production is located. Plus the hours can be bad, as in there are usually lots of them. But, boy oh boy, is it fun!

It has a lot to do with where you are and what business you're in.

In a recession all the less strong financially will go out of business. Eventually you will suffer from lack of resources to get work done and prices paradoxically will rise.

What will be interesting to watch when we do finally start to come out of this is how many businesses, who survived the downturn, fail during the recovery period due to lack of resources and remaining in "lock-down" mode.

I put in over 50 applications with my resume, and have only been able to make contact with 13 employers.



Out of those 13, 2 gave me interviews. Out of those 2, only one gave me serious consideration.

The economy is completely shot. Nobody realizes how bad it is, or will not admit it. I'm talking about the so called experts in government etc. Because the US economy over the last few decades has become serverly out of balance. An out of balance economy means most of the middle class will remain screwed for the forseeable future.

- Peter.

Things could always have been worse or could have been better, it's just a matter of the opinion of the expert du jour. Reversal of unemployment in various industry sectors (manufacturing and construction) may continue to lag if capital is hard to come by and consumers either lack the confidence to spend, or don't have the money to spend.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup2: 100% with you on this one

That sounds about right, it's just another down cycle; no different from the last one or the next one. The sky isn't falling, but it does take several years to turn these around if you don't want to cause inflation in the process. I doubt we can get away with dumping too much more cash into the economy without causing problems. All you can do is try to create a "soft landing" and wait it out. I do think this is a somewhat "jobless recovery" because employers are being very careful so far. Hopefully we will see employment start to turn around this year.

The darkest hour is always just before the dawn.

Can I quote you on that? Oh wait, I just did....