Screwed: 140 at QuadTech

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

In another round of layoffs, QuadTech lays off 140 employees… CSX Corp. will lay off 132 workers from its Buffalo rail yard by the end of this month… Tennessee’s Shelby County approved 100 county employee layoffs… Up to 70 union workers will be laid off by next week from U.S. Steel Corp…

Recession Concessions: Lost the Business, Keeping the Cleaners

Ryan M. Salinetti, 33
Suffolk County, N.Y.

Keeping: Cleaners
I’ve kept my cleaning people because I love them and I don’t want to see them suffer the way I have.

Letting Go: Employees, childcare, extras
I have a graphic design business [Breakwater Design Studio] that works with locals and local businesses. They did not just go into hibernation for the off-season—I drive down Main Street and see For Rent signs in the windows. There was a wine merchant who was doing excellent; I worked with him for six months on a website project and now he’s gone. Landscapers—their clients were V.P.s for Lehman Bros., and they were the first to get chopped. I do their graphics and marketing, so I got chopped next. It happened in three weeks. I had to lay people off. I gave up the idea that I could have a business, I moved everything home. It was horrible…

Poor Little Millionaires

Every year, Fidelity Investments polls about 1,000 people who are “millionaires.” This year, almost half of them said they don’t feel very rich at all.

According to Fidelity’s report out today, the millionaires saw an average drop in household income of 19 percent and real estate value fell 28 percent. Still, they reported an average of $3.5 million in investible assets and $306,000 in annual household income.

These people are very nervous about their wealth status…

Unsung Heroes – Recession Moms

Today we’d like to offer a big thank you to our moms, without whom we would not running a website, or even tying our shoes, frankly. We know how hard you work, how deeply you care, and how much the future depends on you.

In his new book Elsewhere, U.S.A., social scientist Dalton Conley explains the challenges of today’s multitasking moms, who play an increasingly important role in the economic life of families: “Blending work and home responsibilities is no easy feat, especially in a 24/7 service economy that allows many of us to work from home at all hours.”

Screwed: Another 3,000 at Microsoft

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

Microsoft is letting go of another 3,000 employees, nearly reaching its 5,000-job-layoff goal announced in January… Wells Fargo is laying off 548 employees in uptown Charlotte as it merges with Charlotte’s Wachovia locations… X-PAC, a supply chain service provider, has notified 275 employees of probable layoffs… In another round of layoffs, Caterpillar lets go of 141 employees for a period of at least six months…

Recession Briefing 5.6

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

More than one in five homeowners now owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, according to real estate website Zillow.com. (Reuters)

The jobless rate might be high, but, perhaps surprisingly, there is also a lot of hiring going on at major employers. Who is hiring? Hospitals, colleges, discount stores, restaurants and municipal public works departments. (New York Times)

“The U.S. economy seems to be contracting at a slower rate than it was a few months ago, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told lawmakers yesterday.” (Washington Post)

Redux: Your Psychic Friends

Lynn Parramore looks back at the Great Depression to see the path ahead.

What’s in the crystal ball? Minds freaked out by the economy want to know.

So much so that folks are willing to shell out their scant cash on psychics during an economic downturn. The business of telling fortunes is thriving, with psychics reporting visits from a new class of customer – high powered business types and well-heeled Wall Streeters. Some clients fork over a hundred bucks for the privilege of staring at a pile of crystals. Seems kinda silly – until you consider the bad predictions they’ve likely heard from their financial advisors.

Shows like “The Medium,” or “Ghost Whisperer” have sparked a renewed interest in psychics in recent years, but the downturn has revved up a full-blown revival…

Retooling: Shifting Gears

When your industry is shrinking like Lily Tomlin in that movie, what can you do to keep your growth on track?

As a few of the victims of the Great Media Meltdown of 2008, we’re impressed by anyone who’s found a way to beat that incredible shrinking business. Andrea Miller’s story is pretty compelling.

Miller is the CEO and founder of Tango Media, which publishes YourTango.com, a website about love and relationships, with about 700,000 monthly visitors. After an early incarnation as a magazine, Tango launched as a website and, last fall, as something else altogether…

Recession Dispatch from…Miami

As I write this, a gleaming, blue-hulled yacht about 100 feet long is gliding by on Biscayne Bay. Speakers on an empty rear deck blast the Gipsy Kings.

If Miami were a person, it would be well-toned and tanned, somewhat imperious and, of course, superficial to the Nth degree. It’s an image that goes a long way toward describing the city’s condition in the midst of national economic doldrums.

Sure, we’re hurting—with foreclosure rates among the nation’s highest, a building boom stopped dead in its tracks and tourism down—but the business and political elite tend to ignore flaws or alter them cosmetically. Think of it as a boob job for a sagging economy…

Recession Briefing 5.5

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

Traffic congestion is down in the U.S., reportedly as much as 70 percent in some areas, as a result of rising unemployment. (NPR/Marketplace)

An artist in Glasgow, Scotland, has rigged a vending machine to distribute a free bag of potato chips every time news about the recession is broadcast on the BBC’s RSS feed. (Ellie Harrison)

Freelance is the new full-time: Freelancers now make up 26% of the U.S. working population, up from 19% in 2006. (CNN/Money)