Recession Briefing 10.06: Family Businesses Close, Sadly

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

After months of slow sales, many family businesses are being forced to close, ending legacies and leaving behind a wake of sad customers and loyal employees. (Wall Street Journal)

As the recession grinds on, more students are choosing to attend community colleges. Sky-rocketing university tuition, along with more reluctance to take on huge loans has spurred students to reconsider an alternative they once dismissed. (Boston Herald)

The adult entertainment industry certainly hasn’t been in freefall like the auto manufacturers, but it has felt the pinch of consumers with shallower pockets than they once had. Many agree the multibillion dollar industry is finding it harder to sell sex. (CNN)…

Screwed: 1,067 in Atlantic City

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

Today’s Total: 2,443

Atlantic City casinos cut 1,067 seasonal jobs during the month of September… Cargotec will lay off 500 more international workers, primarily in Finland and Sweden… After folding four magazines in response to declining ad sales, Condé Nast shut four magazines and handed out 180 layoff notices… Emerson Electric is scheduled to close a Mesa, Ariz. factory and lay off 135 workers… Metavation will close its Traverse City, Mich. plant and eliminate 122 employees… Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, Minn. is laying off 120 employees in response to declining numbers of inmates… Electric Boat announced the layoffs of 96 carpenters in its Groton, Conn. shipyard by the end of the year… Newsprint-maker AbitibiBowater will lay off 90 people from its plant in Coosa Pines, Ala…

Small Businesses’ New Balancing Act

The financial turmoil of the last year threw a lot of things out of whack…and not just the overall economy. Small businesses are staring down a future that looks little like the past, with high employee health care and benefits costs, decreased cash flow and increased monthly expenses threatening business as usual.

Many small businesses may not make it. The Financial Times predicted in late 2008 that 62,000 companies would disappear in 2009, representing approximately three million people that would be out of a job by 2010. In 2008, 42,000 small businesses went under, up 20,000 from 2007…

Thrift Today, Gone Tomorrow

The global recession that began in 2007 revived Americans’ interest in an old-fashioned virtue: thrift. And some say it will last — but history says otherwise.

Thanks to shriveling job and stock markets and plummeting real estate values, saving money have become all the rage, and Americans en masse are re-using their tin foil, cutting coupons and boasting about their thrift-store bargains. (Read 13 Thrift Store Shopping Tips.) Conspicuous consumption is out, conspicuous frugality is in. Economists and pundits have pronounced the arrival of a new era – the era of like-it-or-not thrift.

Over the last few months, we’ve seen signs that the economy is perking up. The housing market is leveling out, growth in parts of Asia and Europe has been surprisingly robust, and many forecasters expect the U.S. economy to grow in the second half of the year. (Though Some Smart People Say We’re Still Kinda Screwed.)

Even during periods when thrift was framed as a virtue, it turned out to be a virtue Americans couldn’t wait to relinquish.

But one important piece of the puzzle – consumer spending – has remained stubbornly low, and economists and policy makers worry that consumption won’t ever climb back to pre-recession peaks…

Recession Briefing 10.05: America is on Sale

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

There has never been a better time to be a consumer. America is on sale. The recession has caused massive job losses and hardship for millions, but it has also fostered a shoppers’ paradise. (Associated Press)

Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Sunday that the U.S. economy was “getting close” to the point where it would stop losing jobs. But he also predicted that the level of unemployment would “penetrate the ten percent barrier” and stay at the level for some time before going down. (Huffington Post)

For the first time, the average amount of time it takes fired employees to find a new job exceeds the length of their standard unemployment benefits. (Bloomberg)…

Screwed: 1,800 at American Apparel

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

Today’s Total: 2,386

American Apparel is forced to lay off 1800 workers… The United Space Alliance, Kennedy Space Center’s largest contractor, lays off over 258 employees… Prairie Correctional plans to lay off 120 workers…Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota lays off 100 employees… Swan Hose Co. lays off 72 employees at an Ohio plant… The San Francisco SPCA plans to cut 22 full-time positions… Livonia, Michigan faces 14 layoffs to compensate for state budget cuts…

Downturnaround Deals: Bloomingdales, Macy’s, HP, Limited, Orbitz, LuggagePoint

Every week, we post a handful of online deals hand-picked for Recessionwire readers from Savings.com. Feel free to pass them along to your friends. And if there’s something you’d like to see, let us know!

20% off sitewide at Bloomingdales…

How to Manage Money After a Layoff

With the unemployment rate now at 9.8%, chances are that you or someone you know has been laid off. Yet the bills still need to be paid, and without that salary you used to depend on, it’s hard to know what to do first. Galia Gichon, founder of Down to Earth Finance, former Wall-Streeter and personal financial expert with a particular focus on women, suggests creating a financial plan and sticking to it in order to make the most of your savings or severance. Here’s what she had to say about spending habits, budgeting and more after a layoff:

Recessionwire: What’s the first thing you should do with your money after you’ve been laid off?

Gichon: I would say that the first thing to look at is automatic payments that you might not be aware of. Look at your credit card bills and bank statements—perhaps it’s the newspaper, video rental, the gym or charitable contributions—which can add up to hundred of dollars a month…

Recession Briefing 10.02: Downturn Can’t Keep Sports Fans Down

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

The recession has sapped our wealth and ushered in an era of high unemployment and consumer frugality, yet sports fans — as they always do — are still coming back to the ballpark. (Associated Press)

Money to bury Detroit’s poor has dried up, forcing struggling families to abandon their loved ones in the morgue freezer. (CNN/Money)

The unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent in September as employers cut far more jobs than expected, evidence that the longest recession since the 1930s is still inflicting widespread pain. (Associated Press)…

Screwed: 258 at the United Space Alliance

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

Today’s total: 448

Some good news: Major U.S. corporations announce the fewest number of layoffs last month since March 2008.

United Space Alliance lays off 258 shuttle contractors, believed to be the beginning of a mass layoff of space-program employees… In its third round of layoffs Texas Health Resources cuts 100 jobs… Covenant Health System has begun a second round of layoffs affecting 48 employees… 42 workers at the Watson Laboratories plant will be out of a job by the end of the year… Gill and Montague School Systems are in danger of facing layoffs pending a new budget… Layoffs possible in the Saginaw School District in Michigan.