The Column

Monday, February 2, 2009

Job scene looking bleaker

About the only good news happening is that gas prices are lower. Not that it does much good; few people have the right kind of disposable income anyway, so it doesn't really matter what a gallon of gas costs.

If you're following my occasional news dispatches in the left-hand column of this blog (and if you're not, shame on you) you'll get an on-the-fly sampling: Layoffs, layoffs, and more layoffs.

Like in a three-day period last week, more than 100,000 people got notice that they're no longer working. Now, that's rough. It's more than rough. It's unspeakable. It shouldn't happen here in these United States.

Even the seemingly invulnerable industries are taking it in the shorts. I mean, what's this about Microsoft laying off a few thousand people? I guess world conquest is a tough business. And Pfizer? THE Pfizer? Those wonderful folks who brought you Zoloft and Viagra? Yeah, THAT Pfizer. They're cutting research and development right between the eyes. I'm having trouble with this one. When there's a financial free-fall going on, the only thing people can do is a) get depressed or b) have a lot of sex. Or both. At least you'd think so.

But when the Microsofts and the Pfizers start cutting back, you know things are not good. These are companies that practically print money.

In my news dispatches (usually sent via text message through Twitter), I'm stuck on a catch phrase: Are we in a depression yet? Economists say no. The government says no. But keep in mind none of these guys never really owned up to the fact we're in a recession until when? Last December? About nine months after the average guy in the street was calling it a recession, anyway.

Locally, a few companies have either left town or are in the process of doing so, all in the name of downsizing. The biggest of these is Maersk, the Denmark-based shipping giant that accounts for nearly a quarter of the containers coming in to the Ports of Charleston. Yeah, the party line is that they're still negotiating with the State Ports Authority, but their bags are packed. And this is affecting several other industries -- several trucking firms have cut back, for example. Last week, Atlantic Trucking shed 11 driver's positions, and I'm wondering how they can legally do this because the drivers are owner-operators, meaning they're independent contractors. About the only way I can think of canning an independent contractor is if the driver violates the terms of the contract -- for example, if a driver has too many tickets and is uninsurable. It's a good bet the drivers aren't telling me the whole story, but you never know.

But that's peripheral stuff. Again, things are bad. Jobs are scarce. In the Charleston Post and Courier, job ads were down to a little more than one column for at least one day last week. That's one column, and there are nine of them per page. When times are flush, expect more than a page -- often two -- of just job ads. It's beyond ugly. It's butt-ugly. It's bugly.

Here's the deal. Right now, if you have a job, you're Texas-lucky. I'm one of the lucky, though my hours were cut back about a month ago. And with the economy showing so few signs of life, nervous time is not quite over for me. For now, though, no worries. I was talking to a truck driver about it the other day.

"I have this job," I said. "I have my benefits. I can still fog a mirror in the morning. Life is good."

Sometimes the only thing keeping a fella sane is that kind of attitude. Even if things get totally messy, I still have that mirror-fogging power.

Oh, yes, and gas is cheaper, too.




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