With those percentages, the media can't sell fluff, people are FEELING the depression directly.
With those percentages, the media can't sell fluff, people are FEELING the depression directly.
The last few months has been real rough around here. A lot of companies that have been just hanging on for the last few years are begining to have layoffs and going concern problems.
Usually, in past recessions it was a great time to be in business if you had capitol because you could get so much done for so little money and people were willing to work hard to get the job done.
This time is very different from the past. A lot of companies are so beat down they have little or no working capitol to get the job done so when they actually do get jobs they have a hard time getting on site and getting the job done.
On one project, we have had major disruptions as two contractors go BK during the job and several have had major layoffs. Our contractors report similar issues with their sub contractors and suppliers. On site performance has been below par and often reaches dysfunctional levels. These are not fly by night operations, they all are contractors and suppliers that are highly respected and have been in business for at least 30 years and we are carefully vetting them before we give them a job.
In past recessions lead times for parts and supplies was very short due to lack of workload and the fact that companies were hungry for business. This time around lead times have been horrible and suppliers have become very unreliable and things always seem to run many weeks past contracted delivery dates.
The high cost of energy seems to really dragging things down across the board. Our transportation and shipping costs are sky high and fuel bills for our commercial vehicles and trucks are simply astronomical.
In fact our fuel bills are so high they are actually impacting our budget and draining assets away from more productive uses of cash not the least of which is reinvesting in more energy efficient machines or energy saving processes.
Despite the high unemployment rates, finding qualified employees is actually much harder than one would expect and the response to our help wanted ads is a surprising low with just a hand full of applicants when you would expect tons of applicants lining up to interview.
Theft, vandalism and outright fraud have been problems at a level we have not seen in the past downturns. Theft of fuel is common and god help you if you have to secure copper wire. We have had several contractors have to stop work or resign from projects due to theft of their vehicles and equipment. Our perception is that there is lots and lots of insurance fraud going down as companies use dubious theft, damage or fires claims to generate capitol or to cash out of failing businesses that they can't sell.
Never seen anything like the current situation it in my whole career.