Still waiting. Today actually wasn’t so bad (stupid Kodak!). The headlines:
Kodak to Cut Up to 4,500 Jobs, Restructure, Has Loss — 18% of their workforce, and includes executive positions. Those are deep cuts.
London Underground to Cut 1,000 Support Staff Jobs — UK jobs don’t count for my purposes, but I found this interesting. No rail workers’ jobs will likely be cut (if they are, a strike will be the most likely outcome).
Technology Companies Cut Most Jobs in Five Years — Nothing new here, just a tally. I have to deal with college seniors who respond to job fair opportunities with “Why do we care about a recession? We’re in tech.” 186,955 lost tech jobs isn’t as bad as the dot com bust (1,100,000 tech jobs over 2 years), but it’s not something to sneeze at either. The downturn in tech is just beginning. If it lasts, the numbers will start to add up. It’s not the best time to be a college senior.
French strikers march for job security, pay rises — I found this via jeffmiller. We’re still early in this downturn. If civil unrest begins now, things are going to get bad. This was actually kind of a non-event. My friend in Ireland describes the local situation a bit like a pressure-cooker. Detroit is similar. In each of these cases, the people are looking to the government to cast a magic spell that rewinds back to the bubble (but, you know, in a good way). In each case, the people are frustrated with the government for bailing out the financial institutions that should have failed. Actually, from the conversation with my friend, I think there will be places in Ireland that will be worse than Detroit.
Anyway, Kodak was the big bad for today. Tomorrow has the GDP figures, so “keep your expectations reasonable” (I had that in a fortune cookie … twice! Both times I was on a date).
