Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. economy entered a recession a year ago this month, the panel that dates American business cycles said today, making this contraction already the longest since 1982.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=al4iyIoRhvao&refer=home
Thanks for telling us, guys. But most of us were all too aware that the economy was in shitty shape, going back even farther than that. Despite shrub and the rethuglicans repeated cheers that "our economy is strong", anybody living on the lower end of the money pyramid knew it sucked.
In my own situation, the job market is terrible. I spent the summer and fall working for a buddies landscaping business while trying to find better employment without luck. One sign that the economy was in trouble was when a number of his accounts started dropping his services (some he's had for almost 20 years). These are relatively well off folks (poor people don't hire gardeners) but they felt they had to cut back their spending somewhere. I still made enough to get by, but not more. And now the season is done. I'm broke and looking for work, and I've got a lot of company. This morning I was one of about 25 applying for a warehouse job that pays little and demands a lot. Just another sign of the times.
Added: Our good blog buddy Monkeyfister (http://www.monkeyfister.blogspot.com/) has some great advice for how to survive the coming years. Some of his suggestions may be unavailable to some of us, but he's got a lot of resources available that may be usefull to many.
2 comments:
Don't feel bad there's a ton of us up here in the northwest out of work and the numbers are growing daily. (Wamu just laid off 3400 here) The only job I saw was for a temporary on call painter / asbestos worker at the local university but with budget cutbacks I'm sure there won't be any work.
Are you still working on that renewable energy project? I'm thinking that may be the next avenue to persue. I'm hoping things will get rolling a few months after Obama takes office.
Ah, the biofuel (butanol or cellulosic ethanol) project...I haven't given up on it, but the people I was working with seem more devoted to wrangling with lawyers and milking investors than actually developing a working plan for a working plant.
So it's not dead, only comatose.
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