Recession Briefing 4.17

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

There are new signs that the recession may be easing up. The pace of new-home construction seems to be nearing a bottom, and first-time jobless benefit claims fell more than expected. (Associated Press)

The banking industry is also starting to see some signs of recovery. JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo have announced major profits this quarter. (New York Times)

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says that the Obama Administration’s ties to Wall Street will doom its bank-rescue efforts. (Bloomberg)

Screwed: Possibly 1,600 in Chicago

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

The City of Chicago’s Mayor Daley may be forced to lay off up to 1,600 city workers… Petro-Canada is laying off up to 200 employees… 121 workers could be losing their jobs in Monmouth County, NJ… Kansas City Harley-Davidson plant is firing another 70 employees as part of its restructuring… Vectrix, the electric scooter manufacturer, is laying off 60 employees…

Recession Dispatch from…a New Yorker in Santa Monica

As a New Yorker, whenever I travel to California, I’m ever hopeful that I will adopt the effortless, easy happiness of the sunny residents. On my last visit two weeks ago, I wondered if the recession had made its mark the same way it has sent a dark hazy cloud over Manhattan. I stayed with friends, a talented singer-songwriting couple who live in the cozy, creative bungalow community of Santa Monica. They had just landed a very promising project, and living in their hotbed of musical activity, recessionary Manhattan felt far away.

The raw food restaurant next door to the yoga studio I frequented was doing brisk business. From my observation, the Santa Monica crowd thinks nothing of paying $8 for a smoothie or $22 for a yoga class…

Love in the Time of Layoff: Coming Home Again

On Tuesday, my husband found out that his freelance work with the firm that picked him up three days after the Layoff is now drying up. Yesterday was his first day “back” at home.

“So, does this make you, like, laid off times two?” I asked in a lame appeal to mask my panic with humor.

“Nah, it’s much better,” he said. I asked him to explain.

Turns out, there are Layoffs and there are layoffs. Technically, of course, this latest downsizing of my beloved doesn’t count as a layoff at all, since Marco hadn’t been on staff at that firm. When his supervisor told him there was no more work for him right now, there was no sense of betrayal, no dark questioning (why me? why not him or her?), nothing personal. Other freelancers had been slowly disappearing. He knew things had been winding down.

The Pre-Interview Checklist

Maybe it’s been a while since you were on the receiving end of a job interview. Maybe your current technique isn’t helping you snare a job. Or, are you simply ready to take your interviewing game up a notch? Whichever stage you’re at, these six tips will help you make the most of your next meeting.

• Craft an answer to “Tell me about yourself.” And write it down. And practice it. We suggest the response be three to four minutes long, and highlight your accomplishments and experience with the skills that are critical to the job, as well as explain your progression between positions.

Recession Briefing 4.16

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

The Treasury Department is giving six large lenders as much as $9.9 billion each to modify mortgages that are in danger of defaulting. (Wall Street Journal)

The number of weekly initial jobless claims declined sharply this week to 610,000. That’s a decline of 53,000 from the prior week. (CNN/Money)

Advertisers have started to ramp up recession-themed campaigns, many of which, naturally, are repurposing the phrase “stimulus package.” (New York Times)

Screwed: 8,700 at UBS

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

Swiss bank UBS will cut 8,700 jobs by 2010… KLM airlines plans to let go of up to 3,000 employees by 2011… Yahoo prepares to fire at least 500 employees by June… Russell Investments is laying off 400 employees from Tacoma, Washington…

Looking for the Work Afterlife?

Want the skinny on launching a media startup? Tomorrow night I’ll tell the tale of how Recessionwire started, at the first Life After Digital event in Soho. We’ll be discussing our experiences and the opportunities we see in the post-digital era. Admission is free—and so are the drinks.

Also, registration begins today for LaidOffCamp NYC (May 1-2, 2009)…

The Last Supper

A celebration to end all celebrations…literally.

I had heard the rumors that there were more layoffs to come at Forbes, but given that my salary as a reporter was at the bottom of the newsroom totem pole, I felt certain I would not be a casualty.

Further proof of the fact that I was irreplaceable sat on my desktop: an invitation from Steve Forbes himself to a party for the African economist-turned-author Dambisa Moyo, whom I was interviewing about her new book Dead Aid. It didn’t make sense to invite me to a party and then lay me off. Or so I thought…

Stitch Slap the Recession

Forget high-density thread counts. In the Depression, the most popular fabric for quilts was feed sacks, or the cloth bags that packaged flour, sugar and animal food. They were first recycled by thrifty women during Civil War shortages. But by the 1930s, the sacks began to be designed specifically for reuse, with label names on easily removable stickers and decorative prints replacing
solid fabrics- clever eco-marketing a whole 75 years before “I’m not a plastic bag.”

At the recent “Recycling and Resourcefulness: Quilts of the 1930s” exhibit at the American Folk Art Museum, Depression-era pieces on loan from the International Quilt Study Center showcased ingeniously pieced together quilts made from everyday material like dressmaking scraps, commemorative ribbons and even worn-out clothing, from old jeans and sweaters to my personal favorite: the front and back of a men’s red and navy striped, suspendered bathing suit.