I'm a manager at a local music store and I can tell you that it is SLOW right now.. I've already had to cut hours and let one person go.. it's not looking any better either. I hope that Obama's plan gets us out of this and people start spending again.. Or i dont know what will happen to me or others that work with me..

I'm a nurse. So as long as everybody keeps drinking, smoking and overeating, I'll be in business. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

My wife is in the mortgage business so I feel some of your pain.

I work for a union and it's been crazy in negotiations with employers how much they want to use the bad economy as an excuse for slashing wages and benefits. Keep in mind, I dont work in an industry that is hard it on the consumer end, we are a union of healthcare workers and that industry is profitting huge in our state and many others.

I am a Journeyman Millwright that runs a crew of welders and mechanics for the NYC power company that build and maintain the power generation equipment (boilers, turbines, etc.) I thank God daily for the stability of my industry. I have an employee that is just out of college that I am training right now, and he told me that none of his peers that have just graduated can find jobs.

I know, I haven't been able to either. I wanted to stay close to my family, so that limits my search area, and I haven't heard back from anywhere I applied. Most of the jobs I come across are either management at a fast food restaurant, or they want years of industry experience. No good entry level jobs. There's all taken by the people with experience that are out of work. I read there are guys with MBAs that are driving taxi's or delivering pizzas. I can only put off paying my school loans for so long. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif" alt="" />

Hi Andy,

When I left University our Country was in the last big recession...I did'nt have to do it for that reason as I could have got a civi job...but I joined our Armed Forces...ironically...this is my saving grace right now...(hopefully) ...as my civi job has little or no work happening due to the recession...when your young it pays to have at least two arrows to your "quiver"... a job skill for hard times...and a better one for prosperous ones. Your armed services can probably help with those loans as well....

Good Luck

S/F.

That sounds familiar, I'm an apprentice Millwright currently working at a government owned power plant. I work through the union so it's not a permanent job but we've been pretty busy in the energy sector lately, and I'm doing better than a lot of the guys I went to school with.

I enlisted in 92 after getting let go from the power company - during that recession that we didn't have... I went through boot camp and "A" school with guys that had degrees - intelligent, skilled, mature, and responsible people. People that enlisted because they wanted or needed to. I hate to say it but I'm kind of looking forward to that part of it again. There was a definite decline in the quality of people we were getting starting around 1998 as the economy was on fire. Standards were lowered, bonuses were created to get people to simply enlist. I realize it's a second chance for some with criminal records but that hasn't been the case for the majority of those...
There have been other changes over the years, other peaks and troughs - that's life and the world for you.
Anyways, a "four year hitch" isn't such a bad way to ride out this economy - like SF said: it'll add another arrow to your quiver, plus you'll see some of the world.

"The first quality of a soldier is constancy in enduring fatigue and hardship. Courage is only the second. Poverty, privation, and want are the school of the good soldier."
- Napoleon

</end my two cents>

Well, in my area things have been booming because of the oil industry. A Joe Blow average welder could make $7,000 a month and a lot of high school drop outs were making $3,500-$4,500 a month just bustin it in the oil field. That is all winding down now so there are a lot of people looking for jobs as well as a lot of automobiles/boats/motorcycles/homes and property being repossessed.

Since 2004 I have owned and operated a private security contractor business, and employeed mostly friends and former fellow special forces soldiers. The work is nasty and sometimes extremely dangerous, but I certainly can't complain about the pay.

I have however in recent months scaled back on the security business and started taking less jobs in favor of other ventures. Like ordawg I too operate a family business in which we buy and sell just about anything. My family has been in the Automobile business since 1966 when my Dad opened our first dealership, so it was a natural progression when I decided to bring everybody back together in a family run business. Since my Dad had retired in 1999, everybody had gone there seperate ways and went in to different career fields. With the economy getting to be the way it is, some of my family members had lost their jobs and fallen on hard times.

I feel very fortunate to be surrounded by my family, and to know that everybody is okay. The work is still hard, and it's still stressfull, but at least I know where I stand with everybody who works for me.

There is still money to be made out there guys, you just have to hustle and work harder than the next guy.

Tolly are you linked to the USPI outfit based in Texas? Or Halliburton Inc?
I hear that there are some big contracts in Afghanistan open for tender at present...even one for a Contractor to oversee the contracts awarded to PSC's?
Who do you think will get that one? LOL.....

At present there seems to be a bit of a "bun fight" going on amongst the PSC's in S'tan with Blackwater and USPI at loggerheads...or so I am told....but S'tan looks to be going the same way as Iraq. Let's hope some decent standards come to bear and no more Triple Canopy scenario's emerge. With the charges being laid against the Blackwater employees for the Iraq debacle it must be a risky time for the PSC industry.

It's a rather nasty business for sure. I'd rather not say too much about our alliances on the public forum, but I will tell you this. There are lots of red and gray trucks around.

Yes...my mistake...got talking to some guys on a long phone call...ended up with me "speaking before thinking" when posting having come off the phone...
hope your ribs settle down OK...when I did the same I never eased off and it took an age for them to heal...better to give yourself a healing break....all the best S/F.