Real hard. I have lost over 1/3 of my net worth in the stock markert crash. It is only a paper loss, but if I am laid off I will be forced to sell all that stuff at a locked-in loss to support myself. Oh well, it is only stuff. I will hope for the best and be glad I still have a good job. If people stop flying, it will hurt me though because my job is tied to the airline industry. After 9/11, they laid off 1/3 of our workforce because people stopped flying for awhile.
I hear you there. We have had to cut out the 50 - 70 hour weeks down to the bare 40. People have grown to living outside of their actual expenses and it is hurting everyone.
On my end, machinery values overall as far as resale goes are considerably less on some items than a few years ago. Although the big rental companies seem to continue doing well, small resale operations, such as myself have seen a very defined decline. Machines I could easily see $1200 for on average three years ago are bringing around $600-800 now. Of course, this is not a benchmark to the entire situation, but people definitely have less to spend & can't afford to spend as much when they do make a large purchase.
The summer months have always been lean as far as internet sales go, but this summer, with gas at well over $4.00 a gallon & other expenses skyrocketing was absolutely brutal. I have a very good commercial customer that had to postpone a purchase for three months due to the fact the steel price on material he had to purchase almost TRIPLED after giving the original bid when he began the project. He told me he basically lost his rear on that project & the bid was already made, the project started. There were no changing the numbers after the fact.
Here in Michigan, we have seen some of the highest unemployment rates in the country. The average general labor/factory job pays about $8-12 per hour with little or no benefits package. Theft of copper & other metals valuable as scrap are at a staggering high. It's a bad situation & it's probably not going to get immediately better any time soon. I'm just glad I have no real debt & my wife has an excellent job with the state to pick up the majority of the bills, while I take care of the kid & turn machines to make extra income. Even the two GM plants here in Lansing have seen a slowdown. They are building two of the most popular models GM is selling & they were working 60-70 hours a week on average for the last year solid.
Yes, this situation is effecting everyone, everywhere. S.W.
Things are getting tight around here. "Allsteel", a company in a nearby community just let go 200 folks yesterday and will be laying off another 200 Tomorrow. They just ran an ad in the paper 2 weeks ago for welders...now it's not run since. We have a real shortage of welders here in IL. So most ads run for a long time. Only ones doing any "FUTURE" hiring is J. Deere and it's out source companies. I have an interview with J. Deere Tomorrow morning, but it's for future hiring pool. I'm seeing less and less out there every day.
The metal building industry has slowed dramatically.
There are a lot of jobs out there, ready to go, but the customers are afraid to pull the trigger until they see a definate and prolonged, upward turn in the economy.
We had to issue temporary layoffs to a portion of the crew, last week.
Tim in East Tennessee
I'm in East Tn. as well (Oak Ridge),I know how slow everything is.I just hope we can all weather the storm.
The western slope is going to start hurting soon. Production work has slowed in the oilfield, and people are pinching their pennies already. It's gonna get rough for a while............
Here in GA in the past gov funded road work has always boomed even when other industries have fallen off. I work for a bridge company that usualy does 100+ million a year. Right now we are working off of work secured 2-3 years ago and only have secured 30 mill in future work. The state is even a slow pay customer now.
62/barrel=job loss
oil sands have put a hold on a bunch of projects.
It is looking okay here in PA, several companies are looking for rig welders CWI's and welding engineers. I put out 8 resumes the other day to the likes of Bechtel, Case New Holland, and Esab among others. They are running gas lines as well as doing exploratory drilling all over PA right now, lots of work for pipe welders. Soem specialty tech companies are looking for Welding engineers (me) and CWI's as well.
Last night on TV I saw a guy promoting coal to liquid fuel in Pa. They hope to be able to set up a plant in the next few years.
Bechtel has been a pretty good company, at least in the past. Good luck with Your job search.
That is good news as long as the GW alarmists don't unplug the project. I have lost over $30K on liquid coal stock investments due to projects being cancelled to appease protesters. The politicians need to turn a deaf ear to some of this stuff - especially liquid coal. We really need it!
According to the san fran chronical, and based on a verbal recorded statement by Obama, he has stated "they can build coal plants, but I will bankrupt them". In short, no liquid coal, no new coal power, no coal period. with one day left, the truth arises.
CWI555,
"with one day left, the truth arises."
This is only the beginning of the surfaceing of the reality. Scary isn't it?
jrw159 :-)
OBWAN: The guy said this process and fuel puts less CO2 in the air than oil, and since China has started building plants, the costs are higher. My cousin met someone involved in this process in Jim Thorpe Pa. [where He lives] in the coal regions of Pa. While there is coal here in PA. the greatest ammounts are out west.
What I heard is that carbon sequestration offers hope to CTL, but increases the cost of a CTL plant by $5B. Some claim the process is unproven, but I have heard that at Kinder Morgan in TX over 5 billion cu-ft of co2 is captured daily and pumped underground. If they enact laws, CTL plants will be forced to ante up the cash to do carbon sequestration. That could make the cost of CTL prohibitively expensive if the price of oil falls any further long term. It would be a boom for the welding industry though.
By cajun welder 
Date 10-31-2008 23:26
Edited 11-01-2008 03:06
I'm in south La. and I also work for a metal building co. and our hours have been cut from 60 hrs. to 48. We have several contracts for after the 1st of the year. Most of the buildings we are doing are
for oil related business. I've been there for 7 years and only had three weeks of 40 hrs. So far we have an average of 55 buildings per month. Sorry, I didn't get to finish my post, but the kids wanted to go trick or treating. I've heard of several pipeline jobs going on, and alot of work at the port of iberia. From what I've seen and heard south La. still has plenty of work.
By abrahamx 
Date 11-03-2008 15:44
Edited 11-03-2008 15:46
Well, in MI here and have worked 9 weeks since nov. 30th 07. Probably earn around $25000k this year. Think I made more than that at my first job as an 18 yr old.(I'm a sheet metal worker I should add). Boilermakers needed extra welders for a coal plant shut down recently. I went to my local to practice buy could'nt get the 6g 2" pipe weld down in time. I will be ready for next time though.
