The real state of the economy, interesting stuff here:
Schachter: "Once again our exceedingly 'scientific' poll results are in: some 27 percent of those responding to last week's Turning Points survey feel confident about their job situations; another 8 percent lost a job, but found a new one. But the overwhelming sentiment was dread, with nearly 30 percent out of work, and another 35 percent dreading the ax. That angst was also evident in responses to the discussion question on our Web site. This is Jessica from Los Angeles."
Jessica: "I think it's telling that at a recent dinner, only two of the 10 friends were reliably employed. The vast majority of my friends were unemployed at the first breath of the recession. They worked at dot-coms, traditional entertainment companies, law firms, and at a variety of other professions. Most of us hope to find work by the end of the summer, but frankly, it's been so long since some of us had work, that the impending doom of unemployment running out is just that -- impending doom."
Schachter: "Dave M., from rural Iowa, was a computer tech in the Midwest before losing his job. He says some of the bean counters these days are using the downturn as an excuse to look overseas for labor, a move he believes is unbearably shortsighted."
Dave M.: "I've worked for a number of mid-sized, Midwest manufacturing companies that were mismanaged into financial trouble. I'm 60 years old now and despair of ever finding another job in technology management. I have to consider a late-in-life change in career."
Schachter: "Jonathan, from Portland, Ore., works for a major telecom company that has fired more than 10,000 people nationwide. He says what has been lost in the recession is a sense of security."
Jonathan: "Recently, my girlfriend lost her job, and as a result, she was forced to move back with her family 50 miles from where I live. I've seen friends that have been devastated because they had to take a job in another state, and they have to work overtime. It's not about only the ones losing the job and the money."
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