| 12/05/2008 - The downward spiral appears to have leveled off a little, but the overall trend for us is still downward, and the pain factor is very high.
From a market perspective, we've tested the mid 7000's in the Dow a couple times now. Hopefully that's a sign of some kind of bottom. But it's certainly not out of the question that we could see those levels again, or event lower - especially given the perils of the US Auto Industry.
It's hard not to get caught up in the fear frenzy that's going on. I live in a small city (pop @ 100,000). My commute to work often takes me through the middle of the city - where I drive by the unemployment office. Typically when I drive by there are a half dozen people milling about in front of the place. Today when I drove by there was a line that stretched a good 50 yards around the corner and down a side street.
Six weeks ago, at a company meeting our President explained that if we did not meet our sales target for the quarter (which had been revised downwards) layoffs were a certainty. Today the President sent out an update of our sales for the quarter - the results were not good.
I've been through five rounds of layoffs at my company. The majority of the layoffs have taken place in mid January. So now we just wait and cross our fingers that I make the cut again.
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