They say the economy is fine
But my household knows better. My roommate has been working 4 day weeks for the last month, if things don't pick up for him in October he's talking about taking the whole month off. Not enough work.
My job for the last few months has been a matter of looking one to two weeks ahead, for everyone in the office. I had one busy week about two weeks ago. I trenched for three days and did some drilling for our Hollister office one day that week. Since then, I've finished writing two reports and now looking two weeks out... Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada. I've tried to diversify what I can do around the office. I'm learning to do lab testing, I do the drafting, I do soil testing and inspection, I do soil, geologic, and environmental investigations... and with all that... Nothing. Things are looking bleak. Those work-share forms in my desk drawer are looming large.
An extended period on work-share and I will have to find a new job.
My wife went to FedEx yesterday, it's the same story, nobody there is working full time anymore. The most anyone is allowed to work is a 30 hour week.
The State of California is 69 days late in passing a state budget. Meaning state-funded child-care programs for low-income families are failing, and many other state funded projects have ground to a halt. There is currently a legal battle over whether the governor can pay ALL State workers minimum wage. The state is currently running a deficit of 15.2 Billion dollars.
The City of Vallejo recently was declared legally Bankrupt. Voiding all public contracts for the city of Vallejo.
Almost every day you find another company that has closed it's doors and there's a place for rent
10% of all homes up for sale are foreclosures.
The housing market is crumbling, people are unable to get loans against the value of their homes.
Meanwhile, San Jose was ranked #2 most affluent in the US recently. Obviously the rich are intent on hanging onto their money. (Republicans like to cut taxes for their rich buddies because they think it will stimulate the economy).
Barak Obama's 5% tax cut on everyone making less than 250K annually sounds pretty damn good to me. That's 2,200 after tax back into my pocket annually. Gee that 1500 one time stimulus package issued by the gov't certainly did it's job, rendering the federal coffers even more into the red. Trillions of dollars in the red already.
On a positive note, my company holds the on-call contract for geotechnical services for the city of Fremont. More work should come out of that. Also, autumn/winter is approaching and a couple day of rain ought to get people worried about getting their grading done before the rains.
I'm worried about things. I've recently updated my resume, and I've been keeping track of job listings. Though I haven't pursued anything yet.
My fear, really, is that things are the same no matter where you are.
My job for the last few months has been a matter of looking one to two weeks ahead, for everyone in the office. I had one busy week about two weeks ago. I trenched for three days and did some drilling for our Hollister office one day that week. Since then, I've finished writing two reports and now looking two weeks out... Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada. I've tried to diversify what I can do around the office. I'm learning to do lab testing, I do the drafting, I do soil testing and inspection, I do soil, geologic, and environmental investigations... and with all that... Nothing. Things are looking bleak. Those work-share forms in my desk drawer are looming large.
An extended period on work-share and I will have to find a new job.
My wife went to FedEx yesterday, it's the same story, nobody there is working full time anymore. The most anyone is allowed to work is a 30 hour week.
The State of California is 69 days late in passing a state budget. Meaning state-funded child-care programs for low-income families are failing, and many other state funded projects have ground to a halt. There is currently a legal battle over whether the governor can pay ALL State workers minimum wage. The state is currently running a deficit of 15.2 Billion dollars.
The City of Vallejo recently was declared legally Bankrupt. Voiding all public contracts for the city of Vallejo.
Almost every day you find another company that has closed it's doors and there's a place for rent
10% of all homes up for sale are foreclosures.
The housing market is crumbling, people are unable to get loans against the value of their homes.
Meanwhile, San Jose was ranked #2 most affluent in the US recently. Obviously the rich are intent on hanging onto their money. (Republicans like to cut taxes for their rich buddies because they think it will stimulate the economy).
Barak Obama's 5% tax cut on everyone making less than 250K annually sounds pretty damn good to me. That's 2,200 after tax back into my pocket annually. Gee that 1500 one time stimulus package issued by the gov't certainly did it's job, rendering the federal coffers even more into the red. Trillions of dollars in the red already.
On a positive note, my company holds the on-call contract for geotechnical services for the city of Fremont. More work should come out of that. Also, autumn/winter is approaching and a couple day of rain ought to get people worried about getting their grading done before the rains.
I'm worried about things. I've recently updated my resume, and I've been keeping track of job listings. Though I haven't pursued anything yet.
My fear, really, is that things are the same no matter where you are.
Labels: San Jose, State budget, US economy
posted by Chris | 6:57 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home