Do you think you will lose your job because of the economy?

[Tbornetun]

I too am a paralegal but not in the BK sector. I work mostly with corporate and business matters/law and I have been extremely busy, way moreso than usual. The other booming areas in this economy are the repo businesses and those hired by the banks to clean foreclosed houses. The ads have been numerous for those jobs in our area papers. It's just situational/economy related...

I tend to think that either way, when the economy takes a crap, we become busy no matter which area of law we work in. Divorce, bankruptcy, lawsuits, etc. all due to the economy I am sure.

[Flamingo]

My husband lost his job last spring because of the economy. I, however, will not. I am a paralegal, when the economy gets bad, we get busy. A couple years ago, our primary case load was estate planning and divorce, with a small percentage of bankruptcies and some misc. business, adoption, etc. In the past year, estate planning has dwindled to a few here and there to 90% of our client files being BK and divorce. We are even seeing some of our estate planning clients from previous years coming back in to see us about a BK. It is really quite depressing. Good thing I love my job. It feels good to help people get out from under the mess they are in and start fresh.

I too am a paralegal but not in the BK sector. I work mostly with corporate and business matters/law and I have been extremely busy, way moreso than usual. The other booming areas in this economy are the repo businesses and those hired by the banks to clean foreclosed houses. The ads have been numerous for those jobs in our area papers. It's just situational/economy related...

[estreeter34]

I run 2 small businesses. The first is a lawn maintenance which did pretty good this year (lost my job of 3 years and got back into lawn care). I have a good client base, but I am concerned about next spring with all the layoffs ahead...
My other business is chimney cleaning and repairs for people with wood burning applications. That has been doing pretty good as people are burning more with the cost of fuel oil and propane. For once things seem to be going my way and I am helping out lots of people to save on there heating costs and keep them safe!
My wife is a nurse and has seniority so that seems secure. However, they are calling people off occassionally lately.
I think we will do fine, just planning for the worst.

[bk4sky]

i work in the student loan industry...so unless gov't gives us some more funding to give out more loans then i might be in trouble

[StartingOver08]

I am in real estate and have been for 30 years. Usually (the last 29 yrs) it was a good business to be in - ups and downs are normal in our field. Usually we just work through the ups and downs - save during the ups for the down periods. However, this time the down period has lasted a lot longer and has gone much deeper than I had planned for - also it came on the heals of a serious personal illness. So I find myself here now, the BK Forum. I am still working, and actually trying out a zero budget (because that is what I have - zero ) So, did I lose my job - no. But I am having to make substantial adjustments to the new economy.

[lillaimof2kids]

I work for a pool and spa company. We're definately down this year by quite a bit. Most of the reason is people are unable to get loans...even the people who have the cash in the bank, but want the loan for tax reasons. Swimming pools and hot tubs are luxury items. Lots of pool/spa company are closing their doors according to our distributors. We're going to start gearing more towards service and repair instead of installation. We survived this season, we'll see what happens next season.

[Tbornetun]

My husband lost his job last spring because of the economy. I, however, will not. I am a paralegal, when the economy gets bad, we get busy. A couple years ago, our primary case load was estate planning and divorce, with a small percentage of bankruptcies and some misc. business, adoption, etc. In the past year, estate planning has dwindled to a few here and there to 90% of our client files being BK and divorce. We are even seeing some of our estate planning clients from previous years coming back in to see us about a BK. It is really quite depressing. Good thing I love my job. It feels good to help people get out from under the mess they are in and start fresh.

[BROKENN]

I quit my job four weeks ago to run my business, which is doing very well.

I definitely would not have been able to do this if I had not filed and learned from my mistakes. I can easily meet expenses, have no debt, and am so happy I can hardly stand it.

I do think I would have been secure in my job as far as being one of the last to be laid off, however I would not be surprised if the whole department gets outsourced to a third party vendor. It involved field work, so couldn't be outsourced out of the country, or even out of state, but I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't vendors bidding to undercut as we speak.

So glad to be out.

ep

Well done, I am glad you are out too! Good wishes to the biz!

[FLBK7]

I work for my county government. I'm doing quite well after accepting the promotion that was offered when my position was eliminated earlier this year, but today was the last day of work for many who have been bumped off their jobs, reassigned, or laid off. Some who have been around for 30+ years but are still young, have been forced to retire earlier than they planned. So today was sad in many ways. The worst part is that this doesn't seem to be the end of it...

I attended my director's quarterly management meeting and confirmed that things in our department are about as dire as our national economy. Transit routes may be cut in a few months due to budget constraints, which means bus operator jobs will be lost too. The worst isn't over, I'm afraid.

[banca rotta]

I have tenure, so unless the college I work at undergoes a financial collapse, I don't have job security worries. Our college President and financial officers are very conservative (true meaning of the word, not political meaning) so have been very careful about debt, over-extending the school's resources, etc. We took very minimal endowment draws back when the economy was good, so our operating budget isn't really impacted by changes in the stock market the way some of our peer institutions are, and we have zero debt, so I don't forsee major belt-tightening since we've always been a frugal institution to start with. Now if our # of students start decreasing significantly, that could be a problem since tuition is a major part of our operating budget, but in a worsening economy with job losses increasing, we seem to be having as many new students enroll to improve their marketable skills as we have those that have to leave because they can no longer get enough loans to pay for it. But our raises might get smaller and benefits cut if this recession lasts too long I fear.

Political meaning. That's funny. Whenever I think of just what a "Compassionate conservative" Bush is, my stomach makes gurgling noises and you can figure out what happens next.

[epiphany]

I quit my job four weeks ago to run my business, which is doing very well.

I definitely would not have been able to do this if I had not filed and learned from my mistakes. I can easily meet expenses, have no debt, and am so happy I can hardly stand it.

I do think I would have been secure in my job as far as being one of the last to be laid off, however I would not be surprised if the whole department gets outsourced to a third party vendor. It involved field work, so couldn't be outsourced out of the country, or even out of state, but I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't vendors bidding to undercut as we speak.

So glad to be out.

ep

[ddcmmorris]

there is no sure thing anymore. I thought the government job would be secure but who knows.

[allavdj]

My wife and I have a home daycare. People gonna keep having kids, people have to/like to go back to work, gotta stick em somewhere! We tweaked our rates a little to adjust for the slagging economy, but no shortage of business around here.

[Beyondrepair]

I am a stay at home mom and hubby works in car sales. Sales have taken a nose-dive! He works strictly off commission. Not good right now. His paycheck is not even a third of what it was just a few months ago.

[syn]

Job is pretty secure as most govt jobs are........ people have to have water!!!
We have done some tightening of the belts regarding purchasing items, but no one has lost their job due to economy.
Would hate to be working in retail or commercial sales right now. A touch a go situation there........ New car sales are way down, and just everyday spending as decreased.
Hopefully I picked the "right job" to stick around a retire from here in the near future........

My dad has a friend that is in the water filtration business and they have so much work they don't know what to do with it. I guess some things people can't go without!