Today's Economy, Tomorrows Future

[FinsnFur]

This economy thing is really eating away at our nations reputation and well being....and at a rapid rate.

How's things going at some of your jobs?
I'm working at this modular home company and we are so slow right now, that they are running the place every other week.
Most of the homes being built now are to simply RUN the place and the homes will be offered at discounts to dealers and Realtors.
Normally there is no time for that, and every home coming down the line is bought and paid for, waiting to be set on it's foundation.

[Todd Rahm]

Well, not sure about jobs being effected yet up here, but gas prices are gona damper a lot of stuff in this state.  It was cheaper for me to buy a toyota pick'm up truck, make payments, pay insurance, put gas in it for a month, then it was to drive the suburban, and that was just gas cause its paid off. 

[cb223]

I work at a small 25 guy tool & die shop. For the most part we are staying busy, between 40 and 50 hours. I know that doesn't sound right but the tool shops in this area 40 hours is very slow. When the whole shop is down to 40 we are cleaning machines not building tools.  A busy week is about 60 hours.

I really can't complain.

Most of our work is automotive (Gentex, auto dimming mirrors) if you guys have an auto dimming mirror in your vehicle we probably built most of the tooling for it.


Don't you live in Alaska Todd? You should drill yourself an oil well and bring them gas prices down!! 

[Troy Walter]

A toyota,there goes another uaw job.

[Todd Rahm]

Its all about quality at that level Troy, and gas mileage a bit. But don't be to hard on me my fathers a retired UAW, and heck I even get discounts on the vehicles, but I can't afford the gas or repairs on them.  :shck:

[ccp2]

I work 3rd shift at an automotive supplier,we supply break and fuel lines for for Honda,Toyota,and Nissan.We have always been slow this time of year but not ever this bad.Honda is our biggest customer and they are cutting there orders in half by May and by June they are saying we will be going to just two shifts.Will we have a lay off probably but maybe not.                             SOMETHING HAS GOT TO GIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bootmud]

I work for the Manitowoc Company.  We are the worlds largest supplier of mobile hydraulic cranes.  Believe it or not the crane industry is going strong.  We simply can't build them fast enough.  However, the crane industry is usually the last of the large construction equipment to feel the pain but also the last to recover after a recession.

We also produce National Crane products.  The on highway truck cranes that are more for the home construction industry and that side of the business is extremely slow.  We've cut our schedule to bare bones production.  I sure hope things pick back up and we don't slide into a major recession.

bootmud

[DirtyDog]

I really can't say that the writing utensel market is either up or down. Our busy season (back to school) will start in about another three weeks. Once that gets started, I should be able to tell better. However I can sure see the difference in buying things. I have vendors coming to me all the time and saying.....blah blah blah......gas prices......blah blah blah.......I have to raise your price.  The fuel companies are killing the economy, nothing more, nothing less. 

[bigben]

working for uncle sam the job does not slow down.  insurance is killin me though.

[Rprince]

The company I work for builds commercial baking pans. We actually do pretty good in slow times, people still have to eat.
Production wise we are doing very good, but the price of raw materials is increasing very fast, we had a 40% increase in raw materials this past month   :shck:

Our company is pretty stable, we don't have any American competition but China is trying their best to take our business. Right now we can beat their price & our quality is a lot better but the fuel prices are making it hard for us to keep our prices competitive.

[browning204]

My company profited 18.2 BILLION last year.  They cut all out OT this year and took  away from us over all. I just bought a house, this could sink me! And there is no tellin if I will have a job at the end of 2009.

[Jimmie in Ky]

Jobs are dropping like flies here. New construction and remodels are down considerably. Unemployment rate is rising slowly but surely.

With the fuell companies taking every spare dime anyone has it's going to get worse. I expect gas to be at $4 by june. I am already noticing a drop in tourism to the area. Not a lot of post asking questions about the lakes and fishing on the other board I hang out at. I have not heard whether the quilt show has done well or not yet. In an area where tourism is at least a good third if not more of the economy, any drop in travel is bad for us. Jimmie

[Silencer]

too depressing to talk about it, glad I still have a job.

Guys, I want to add to make some extra $$$  all metals are on a rise, so if you have a way to transport steel, aluminum, copper etc etc etc... you can make some REAL GOOD EXTRA $CASH$.  People are glad to get them old junk cars off their lawns, get their garage's cleaned out etc etc. 
At least in this area, not sure if its across the US.

[HaMeR]

I'm a roofer & even we are slow. Folks can't afford to drive to work & have home repairs done. Roofing materials are jumping considerably due to the oil prices & things are just ridiculous nowadays. But look at the bright side,, our gubment is givin us a whoopin $300 each back!! Heck that's enough gas to get me back & forth to work for a couple weeks.  

[bootmud]

HaMer,

Actually I believe you get $600 back for you and a spouse if you have one.  Plus $300 for each child.  Wooo Hooo $1800 bucks coming my way.   Course it would still be cheaper to not have a wife.

bootmud

[HaMeR]

Then I be rich!!    Heck I've even slowed down my post count trying to save a few bucks!! 



If things continue like this I might have to cancel my hunting trip with fredrog furfitters in cananada.    Sorry bout that lil jiminy!! Guess I won't be heading north to hunt any public land with ya this fall!!  :roflmao: :roflmao:

[Rprince]

Silencer,
I may be wrong but last week I thought I heard our local TV station say that people were going to have to be "registered" to sell scrap iron or copper. 
Too many people are stealing copper from houses & taking "junk" that doesn't belong to them.
I thought they said it was a federal thing but I may be wrong.

You're right, you can make pretty good money on the side. My cousin who is a electrician, paid off a lot of stuff from scrap copper that he saved from job sites. He picked up small pieces that were laying around at the end of the day, in a couple of years he had a HUGE pile of scrap wire. That's been a couple years ago, the price has done nothing but rise since then.

[FinsnFur]

Na you dont have to be registered to sell your junk to the scrap yards...not here anyway.

It's kinda funny this was brought up. My neighbor asked if he could throw an old stove and a refrigerator in the back of my truck yesterday to take to the scrap yard after work. (We work together and ride in together)

I thought hell, since were going, I got a couple radiators out in the shop I been saving for such a trip, and it'd be a good time to unload those car batteries ya cant throw away too.

Two ford truck radiators, 1 truck battery, 2 riding mower batteries, brought in $120 bucks. I was like  :shck: your kidding me. I expected $25 bucks, and didnt care because I just wanted em outta the shop.

The neighbor got $20 bucks for his stove and fridge 

[HaMeR]

We know who bought the beer that night!! 

[KySongDog]

I'm retired and this gas price thing is out of control.  I just got hit with $12,000 in medical bills for my shoulder surgery (insurance will pay some but not all).  I need a new roof (come on down HaMeR) and can't see it happening.  I need 4 trees taken down from storm damage and I can't run a chain saw. $1,350 to have it done.

I want to kill something really bad right now.


Semp