Middle Class Guilt Attack? Yuppies and Food Stamps, Part 2

Our recent post on yuppies and food stamps generated a lot of lively discussion, both on and off-line. My own first reaction to my colleague Sara’s question of whether yuppies should take food stamps was a resounding “no” coupled with a feeling of indignation. But when I started asking around, I found that lots of smart people had a wide range of views on the subject. A British friend surprised me by saying: “Oh, that’s just your middle class guilt. You should examine it.” Living through a crisis has the fortunate byproduct of getting all of us to ask ourselves questions and consider why we think the way we do. So examine it I will…

Tips and Tools for the Recently Unemployed

Chances are growing that you or someone you know has been laid off in the last year. The unemployment rate pushed further upward last month with the loss of an additional 663,000 jobs, to 8.5%. It’s beginning to look a lot like 1983, the last time the unemployment rate hit this level.

But is it? In 1983, the national mood was not very hopeful – despite a new president in the office, the Cold War still raged on, crime was holding strong, the inflation rate was 3.22% and unemployment actually hit 9.6%.

Times are hard now, there’s no denying that. Breadlines have appeared in some areas around the country, and Michigan is struggling with a mighty burden of turning around or replacing its major industry and employer to chip away at its 12% unemployment rate…

Recession Briefing 4.3

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.

The U.S. economy shed 663,000 jobs last month, raising the unemployment rate to 8.5%. The number was slightly higher than had been expected. (AP)

A record 32.2 million people were receiving food stamps in January, representing about 10 percent of the country. This is the third time in five months that the program’s enrollment has set a new record. (CNN/Money)

If you come across a good article or blog post about the recession pass it on.

Screwed: 3,000 at Bombardier

A daily review of the employment fallout around the country and the world.

Canadian aircraft maker Bombardier Aerospace will be laying off 3,000 employees, 10 percent of its workforce, from plants in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Northern Ireland… Britain’s life insurance company, Aviva, plans to cut 1,690 jobs… Swiss Reinsurance Co. announces plan to pare back 1,000 positions in the next year… BP petrochemical plant will be letting go of 620 employees from its solar power plants… North Carolina State University may lay off up to 150 employees by July 1st… Green Bay telemarketing company, APAC, is laying off 95 employees… And the government today reported that the national unemployment rate hit 8.5% in March.

Jeffrey’s Recession Dinner Makes Ends Meat

During the Depression, Jeffrey Ruhalter’s grandfather would send 20 pounds of ground beef each day to a tent city in New York, to help feed the hungry. “They would mix it with sawdust to feed more people,” Ruhalter said.

Today’s situation has affected many New Yorkers, though it isn’t quite as dire, as evidenced by the Recession Dinner the fourth-generation butcher sponsored at the Hotel on Rivington last night. On the menu were homemade ravioli, New York strip steak, and cupcakes from Sugar Sweet Sunshine Bakery.

But that doesn’t make Ruhalter’s gesture any less generous. He fed 150 people, including laid-off retailers, publicists, journalists, painters and lawyers, charging just $10 for the dinner…

Double Dip Recession?

We were just getting our minds around the first one. But sure enough, a research group has crunched the data and predicts that we could be in for another recession next year. The maddening logic: If the stimulus plan works, then we may experience a “too-rapid recovery” which will then lead to another slump in 2010. This scenario is known fondly as the Double Dip (recession followed by brief recovery followed by recession). Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Gary Stern has even made mention of a “triple dip”…

Love in the Time of Layoff: A Security of Her Own

I’ve always harbored an entrepreneurial impulse. With Marco still freelancing a few months post-layoff, and with dreams of starting that family underway, I’m starting to plan. And plan big. The nester in me craves a far steadier financial environment in which to raise our imaginary kids. Sure, I wish financial stability would just drop in my lap, but that dream is about as realistic as the stork.

I’m starting to realize that, given our respective industries, if financial stability is going to happen any time soon, it might be up to me.
The entrepreneurial itch and I go way back. While still in graduate school in the late 1990s, I took a leave of absence and followed the siren call of the tech boom. I put dissertation writing on hold and went to work as a content strategist for a start up in Silicon Alley. While the start up tanked, it was a good effort. I learned much. I like to think of that period as this English major’s MBA.

Recession Briefing 4.2

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.

Encouraging signs today: U.S. car sales jumped by nearly 25 percent last month from February, beating the typical rise, there was a rebound in pending U.S. home sales in February from a record low, and manufacturing activity is improving. (AP)

“Dr. Doom” economist Nouriel Roubini writes that there is a dim light emerging at the end of the tunnel: “Compared with the sharp contraction in U.S. and global growth in the first quarter of this year, the rate of economic contraction will slow down for the U.S. and other advanced economies by year-end … with a very weak and tentative recovery by 2010.” (Forbes)

If you come across a good article or blog post about the recession pass it on.

Screwed: 1,600 at Nielson Co.

A daily review of the employment fallout around the country and the world.
Market researcher Nielson Co., will lay off 1,600 employees… Cardinal Health plans to dismiss 1,300 employees in its clinical and medical products unit… Exide Technologies will cut 567 Bristol, Tennessee jobs… Fried Frank is eliminating 99 positions, 41 associates and 58 staff… French ski and snowboard manufacturer, Rossingol, pares back 30 percent of its workforce… The Boston Herald reduces its workforce by 6 percent…

The Layoff Secret-Keeper

When I got The List, I felt physically ill. I had to force myself to read it, and when I had to refer to it I kept it face down on my desk in case someone walked in. At night I locked it up. No one asked me to, but I did so anyway. Because no one should learn they are going to be fired by happening to glance at a one-page document on my desk.

This summer, the company where I work underwent a restructuring, shutting down the riskiest of our major product lines. As a result, a lot of people lost their jobs. Most of them had been here for years—some since the company’s formation decades ago. Because of my role handling the company’s litigation, I was one of the small circle outside of HR that had The List weeks before the terminations happened: A list with names, departments, severance. They were long weeks…