Your experience of the recession?

[Goafer]

According to the news, everyone is massively poor and jobless. Everyone. They're probably having to resort to eating pets and wearing potato sacks too. But what are your experiences with the recession? The only reason I ask is because most people I've spoken to have hardly noticed any real changes. I can only remember one person who had experienced any sort of hardship and even then, they still had a job, it was just a big downgrade (some fancy office job to McDonalds employee).

 

My experience has actually been pretty good. Before all the shit went down, I was working in a dead end factory job. It was well paid (ludicrously well paid for a factory job), but boring and it was a bit embarrassing to tell people what I did for a living, especially when all my friends were fresh back from uni and finding careers. I built Rolls Royce seats for a company called Faurecia and at the beginning of the financial crisis (back when it was called the credit crunch), RR decided to build the seats in house, which was about 2-3 hours away from the current location. Obviously, this meant redundancies. Training our own replacements was an interesting experience. Luckily they were pretty rad, but there was still a bit of an atmosphere. We were offered 2 options: work on the Mini seats, which were built in the same factory, or take redundancy. They allowed us a months trial on the Mini section so we could make an informed decision. I did it for one night shift and came in the next day to tell them I wasn't interested. It was shit. Proper conveyor belt production line work. It wasn't helped by the fact that I was one of the only English people on the line. I worked with a few Hungarians on the RR line and got on with them great, but working on a line where everyone was talking to each other in a foreign language was just misery.

 

Took the rather nice redundancy payout and spend the following 6 months or so looking for a job. I ended up working nights in a petrol station. It was shit. Hated every minute of it. I imagine this is the sort of situation quite a few people find/found themselves in.

 

After another 6 months, a job came up at the place I currently work, a school photography company. As everyone knows, I'm rather partial to photography so I applied and that's pretty much it. Next year I will be doing a job that was one of the jobs I wanted to do when I was a teenager.

 

If it wasn't for the recession and my redundancy I would probably still be in that dead end factory job, so I guess it's one of the best things to happen to me. I'm on less money now, but I have a career and am always learning new skills in an area that interests me.

 

 

So what are your experiences? Has anything changed at all?

[arab_freak]

My country's been in a recession ever since the revolution, despite the Middle East being one of the regions least affected by the global recession. Being in uni I don't have a paying job yet, but I've been hopping around doing part-time stuff for a couple agencies and a TV station and I can see how horribly understaffed they've become. I have a friend working as a reporter for a news channel; and he was sent to cover a story with only one camera. They even made him take a cab for transport because their budget can't cover more than one news van.

 

Besides that, almost everyone I know who has graduated can not find a job. I know a bunch more who are stuck with shitty ones, but are too afraid to quit. I'm supposed to graduate by next year, and I find this extremely worrying.

[jayseven]

I think it's very tricky to measure the recession's effects when my working life effectively started when it started. Having no real experience of real life when things were booming, it's hard to say.

 

I don't have a mortgage, don't have masses of savings, don't have a pension, have no shares or stocks or bonds or anything like that. I don't pay bills, have a car or associated public transport costs to consider.

 

The job market is probably the area I have most 'experience' with, but again i can only really compare my endured events with almost anecdotal tales from the elder generations. My dad talks of a time where his degree in whatever meant he could stand a decent chance getting a job in whateverelse. My grandfather speaks of a time where he could just walk into a place and ask for a job, or where a family's reputation could get you a job.

 

Nowadays I, perhaps cynically, see the job market as one that either requires copious experience or ridiculous qualifications, or needs you to know someone who works there already. I feel that my time at university, career-wise, could've been better spent merely working - but then, I'm still relatively early on in my life. My last three jobs have been fairly unrelated to each other (retail, telemarketing, 'hospitality'), so I'm currently acquiring working, transferable skills. I've learned a lot and proven a lot to myself and friends/family, and recession or otherwise I personally feel extremely optimistic about the future - I've always believed that being a good person leads to good things, and considering two of my last 3 jobs were at least partly due to friends who thought of me when they saw a job opportunity, surely I'm doing ok.

 

I don't think the worst of the recession has hit us yet. There's such a disparity between how poor people think they are and how many luxuries they treat themselves to. I think that being secure in one's financial situation will become more and more vital, and lead to, hopefully, a more objective demographic eye in terms of judging what is actually value for moneyyyaaaaaaaah nope nope nope this is a discussionoverabottleofgin topic, now.

[Dan_Dare]

Here in Sheffield things are bad. Very bad, and getting worse:

 

You guys remember the public sector, right? It's that thing the tories have taken a fucking hatchet to since day one of their term. Anyway, up here in The Former Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire, public sector is everything. The four major employers are the two universities, the council and the hospitals. Now that the Fucking Tory Bastards have bent the whole sector over a backstreet alley all those employers have made big redundancies, frozen new recruitment and slashed their budgets. The result is a totally moribund job market city wide. I went for a junior position in the University a while ago and I was told that nearly 600 people applied- one of whom had 18 years experience in the field. It's basically impossible for me to get a job now, and there's no public sector to pick up the slack. because...

 

...The city centre is a wasteland. Sheffield acquainted forumites Shorty, night wolf and Jayseven will back me up here. The first problem is Meadowhall, the out of town shopping centre. It dominates retail in the region and has basically been a parasite on city since it was built in the 80s. This would be bad enough, and believe me it's awful, but there's now a bigger issue thanks to the recession: Sheffield Council had a rejuvenation plan for the city which would have radically transformed an area of town called The Moor, which is a working class high street. It would also have moved the aged city markets in to the centre. Beyond that, it would have revitalised the other shopping centres nearby and given city retail a boost.

Notice the past tense: 'austerity measures' have collapsed the budget and made it impossible to carry out for, I'd guess, at least a decade at best. But not before the council shortened the leases on every shop in the affected districts and started knocking a few buildings down. In a recent study, Sheffield was found to have fully one third of the commercial properties in the city centre empty. The situation is so poor that there council have actually put fake shop fronts in to make it look like the city isn't totally and utterly shitfucked.

[LegoMan1031]

Well I am in a full time job which pays pretty good. HOWEVER I am in the public sector and have seen a lot of peope lose their jobs so far or are fighting to keep theres with the threat of redundancy. Although no formal notice has been given yet next year I could be under threat of redunancy as well.

 

On top of that for the time being I have the threat of pension repayments going up and I could also be losing £250 a month out of my wages by getting rid of one of my enhancements. SO if both of them happen my wage would become pretty meh.

 

The shopping centre in Winsford (town where i live) has always been a bit of a shithole really, lots of shops closed down - there was going to be a big redevelopment when I worked on there but money got worse and it was all stopped.

 

Sick of the price of petrol going up! Although I have no idea if that is to do with recession, just a random rant from me.

[Wesley]

A big tray of flapjacks at Sainsburys used to cost a quid, now you only get a third of it for a quid and they've just stopped selling the old larger pack.

 

It's like they think we just won't realise.

 

I realised.

 

(And then bought it.)

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

Having had a liberalist government in charge for the past ten years, their answer to the financial crisis was cutting down in the public sector. Education, hospitals, pensions, etc. We recently elected a socialist government, but since their majority relies on a social liberalist party in the middle, they might be forced to give up restoring some of these cuts.

[Ellmeister]

@Dan Dare is there no chance of you moving to find a better job?

[Charlie]

The only real things I've noticed in it are the rising costs of petrol and food. Petrol gone up by roughly 20p a litre which means that I'm now spending around £180-200 a month (on my average 1000 miles / month) whereas before it was £140-150. A big difference.

 

I've also noticed the cost of food increasing, things like chicken breasts have risen sharply in price but because they're always on some sort of special offer (which is also more expensive) you don't really notice it unless you think.

 

 

 

As for job prospects. I'm working the same swimming teaching job as I always have and that's very steady. We did notice at the height of the financial crisis that the number of private lessons dropped a bit but nothing major. My other work is also very steady and safe which is good.

[Tales]

Recession? Where? When? How?

[EEVILMURRAY]

...The city centre is a wasteland. Sheffield acquainted forumites Shorty, night wolf and Jayseven will back me up here. The first problem is Meadowhall, the out of town shopping centre. It dominates retail in the region and has basically been a parasite on city since it was built in the 80s. This would be bad enough, and believe me it's awful, but there's now a bigger issue thanks to the recession: Sheffield Council had a rejuvenation plan for the city which would have radically transformed an area of town called The Moor, which is a working class high street. It would also have moved the aged city markets in to the centre. Beyond that, it would have revitalised the other shopping centres nearby and given city retail a boost.

Notice the past tense: 'austerity measures' have collapsed the budget and made it impossible to carry out for, I'd guess, at least a decade at best. But not before the council shortened the leases on every shop in the affected districts and started knocking a few buildings down. In a recent study, Sheffield was found to have fully one third of the commercial properties in the city centre empty. The situation is so poor that there council have actually put fake shop fronts in to make it look like the city isn't totally and utterly shitfucked.

We've got something similar happening here in our Beeston town square, there's many closed shops, which may have something to do with the bullshit tram system they keep saying they'll implement, but it still looks ugly. There's pretty much more charity shops and banks than normal shops.

[Pit-Jr]

My retirement plan has lost around $7000

[Cube]

My recession:

 

Before it started I was jobless and I was in colossal debt, living with my Grandparents.

 

Since the recession started, I got a job and slowly paid off all my debts. The company I'm working for is a company that's been growing the past two years, even though the industry it's in is due to a hard time (on top of the recession, the floods in Pakistan destroyed a load of crops for cotton, causing mayhem throughout the whole industry) and now I'm moving into my own flat.

[ReZourceman]

As everyone knows, I'm rather partial to photographyl?

 

And children!

 

Yeah recession is lulz. Loads of complaints about falling investments at HBOS, then hilarious amazing job redundancy that enabled me to go to Florida (life long ambition) and kick me out of a job I hated. So it was win/win really. Especially because I'm now in a great job.

[Ramar]

It's been two years since I graduated, I've had four interviews in that time. And my career aims just haven't taken off. Luckily I've kept my job at the local supermarket, it's not ideal but it's money.

 

The recession has basically fucked my job prospects up (especially when the government removed the tax benefits for the gaming industry) and have made me a miserable bastard because I see the four walls of my house more than I want to.

[Wesley]

It's been two years since I graduated, I've had four interviews in that time. And my career aims just haven't taken off. Luckily I've kept my job at the local supermarket, it's not ideal but it's money.

 

The recession has basically fucked my job prospects up (especially when the government removed the tax benefits for the gaming industry) and have made me a miserable bastard because I see the four walls of my house more than I want to.

 

Canaaaaaaaaaaadaaaaaaaaaaa!

[Ramar]

Canaaaaaaaaaaadaaaaaaaaaaa!

 

I'm not too keen on relocating, especially not to another country.

 

Though I dreamt of getting a job in California today which was really weird.

[Will]

It worked out well for me, managed to keep my fairly decent job as it all kicked off, keeping the money rolling in. Made some great investments just after the biggest drops which gave me a nice portfolio of shares to make money from. Got a huge discount on my Lotus due to the dealer being in trouble, meant I got the car I'd always wanted for a price I could actually afford. Now I managed to move to SF which shows no signs of slowing down just now, in fact, there's such a talent shortage the pay here is through the roof. I'm very low paid compared to most here but still earn a fortune compared to back home.

 

I think we could be in for some interesting times over the next few months/years. A lot of the measures taken by a lot of places have simply delayed an inevitible total meltdown. I could see things getting a lot worse for many people before they start to get better.

[Raining_again]

despite the recession I STILL cannot afford to move out. Increased rental prices in my area (thanks to demand) and mortgages being nearly impossible to get.. (thanks to my temporary job) and even at that I don't earn enough to get a decent property! (rough calculations being 75k mortgage but thats with 20k deposit)

 

 

I'm still in the same job I was 6 years ago... so that's not really changed there.

[The fish]

Now I managed to move to SF which shows no signs of slowing down just now' date=' in fact, there's [b']such a talent shortage[/b] the pay here is through the roof. I'm very low paid compared to most here but still earn a fortune compared to back home.

 

Remind me what you do again, fellow Will?

[Will]

Remind me what you do again, fellow Will?

 

I'm a market analyst for a video games company (SEGA). Most of the talent shortage around here is in software engineers, but salaries are very high across the board in my experience.

[MoogleViper]

Remind me what you do again, fellow Will?

 

Gigolo. . .

[Will]

That's more of a hobby.

[Goafer]

Nowadays I, perhaps cynically, see the job market as one that either requires copious experience or ridiculous qualifications, or needs you to know someone who works there already.

 

Or in my case, be willing to receive a good financial fucking and work for magic beans until someone realises you have a skill that can move you up the ladder. I had no experience (apart from the fannying around in Photoshop most people do) or qualifications when I started. Luckily, I think they liked my attitude, which was basically "I don't mind overtime, I did a shitload in my old job". Also, having just come off of night shifts showed that I was flexible with work hours.

[Raining_again]

its all about starting from the bottom, even if you spend 20 years getting degrees and various fancy certificates.... EVERYONE starts at the bottom.

 

I came into my place as a temp, and I'm now the most senior. I was given the opportunity to act up as manager (and very likely preferred because of my in depth knowledge) but I said no.... bet its making the boss paranoid!! She's a complete wanker and theres no way in hell that I would work directly under her!