Has anyone been laid off lately? Seems like things are OK around here. The steel mill just passed a contract where they will lose 15% of their pay, but they are staying open and down-sizing through lay-offs. We have several coal mines that are beginning to hire. However the prison is talking about laying off workers. My husband is in construction so he is always off in the winter. Makes me like a squirrel getting my nuts in before winter!

-- Melissa (cmnorris@1st.net), October 05, 2001

Answers

Sorry I meant to say the steel mill is downsizing through retirement.

-- Melissa (cmnorris@1st.net), October 05, 2001.

There are rumors going around where my husband works at the university about more lay-offs, and no, he isn't a professor, he is a machinist. I expect there will be lots of lay-offs all over the country in the near future. Us country folk can survive though, with God's help!

-- Barb (bjconthefarm@yahoo.com), October 05, 2001.

My dh worked in the oilfield here in Tx the 1st 7 months of this year as a supervisor, the 4 was great, but the stress was horrible on him, he hadn't been a supervisor in 15 yrs. They were working him 7 days a week, 12 hours shifts at night with 1 day off for 2 months, out of town a lot, it just took it's toll on him, so I told him, you've made enough this year for us to live off of for 6 months and it's just not worth his sanity. so he quit, been piddleing around here since, he's not the type to sit in the house on his duff at all. We have tons of honey do's around here. Thing is he's been kinda sorta looking for work and there's not much out there, but we'll survive, we're very frugal, debt free, and grow a lot of our own food. He doesn't want to go back into the oilfield, they'll work you to death while the price is high, then lay you off when it's low and not think twice about it.

-- Carol in Tx (cwaldrop@peoplescom.net), October 05, 2001.

I have one business a part of which involves extending credit to what might be known as "C & D" credit risk clientele. Essentially, these are people the bank won't even allow to open a checking account in many cases. As you can imagine, many fall into the "last hired, first fired" category of employees. I have seen a tremendous number of these people having overtime eliminated, having hours cut back and being laid off in recent weeks. As a result, my personal prediction for the economy in the near term is anything but strong. My receivables are bad and worsening weekly. Non-performing accounts are on the rise. Things are not good.

In another business in which I have a partner, we finance-lease semi tractors to owner-operators. As a result, we keep a pretty close watch on that industry. Freight is down dramatically now. Many very good owner-operators are going under because they just can't get the loads/miles they need. Less raw material going into plants, fewer parts and components going to manufacturers and less finished product leaving translates into fewer jobs and less commerce in general.

I'm not at all convinced this is in any way related to the relative blip 9-11 caused, either. This was happening months ago and is just continuing. I can't speak for anything other than what I see here. I can tell you what I see isn't pretty.

-- Gary in Indiana (gk6854@aol.com), October 05, 2001.

I didn't get laid off-I just didn't get re-hired-I was working temporarily hoping to go permanent, but.... That was last spring and we have adjusted, and actually I love being home-its just that we were trying to get some stuff paid down. My husband's job is pretty secure though-he's a child therapist in an area where theres a desperate need for C.T.s. It dosn't pay a lot, but benefits are decent and its a job! Right now, things don't look bad at all-we're mostly farming community and have had best season in years-its been drought-y last few, and the major factory around is working Saterdays, I can see where other parts of country are hurting though, and it will probably work its way around here sooner or later.

-- kelly in KY (ksaderholm@yahoo.com), October 06, 2001.

How does a prison lay off? Did they lose some inmates or what?

-- Carol in Tx (cwaldrop@peoplescom.net), October 08, 2001.

I don't think there are any leass prisoners, they are already way over capacity. I think they will just make the guards they keep watch over more people. It was in the paper that due to state cut- backs they were going to lay people off. Our state budget is being cut drastically. (OHIO)

-- Melissa (me@home.net), October 09, 2001.