I work for a hospital, and at this time, no talk about cutting back. If anything, we need employees. I work in HR and it is crazy busy because of other companaies laying off, so people are looking at healthcare. So far, so good.

I am in australia,, sorry for the ignorance,,, what is a 401K??

401K is a retirement savings plan that is usually invested fairly heavily in the stock market.

I live in the insurance capital and everyone is down-sizing. One large employer is laying off people and outsourcing jobs to India.

Thanks for the answer about what is a 401K plan, being Australian im not familiar with that term. Also here in Australia, we have either sold a lot of our Companies off shore, or same as you guys really, outsourcing jobs such as "Help Lines" for cell phone services, and general telephone sources to India. that is very annoying!!

Most jobs here that involve having to ring someone for advice have been outsourced to India.

Also we get a lot of preassembled parts made in China, as with the majority of our clothing.

Very rare to have a local clothing manufacturer here.

Actually im starting to wonder what we actually own here?

S-I-L works for PEPSICO - They just announced plant closings and layoffs - he is not sure where he stands as of right now - Hospitals are ridding themselves of LPN's locally so they can receive more from Medicare by having full staff of RN's! Ask me that is crazy as LPN's are half the wage of an RN. But hey - I'm not management what do I know?

I work in the oil and gas industry. They are growing like crazy. They only will tell me that Obama is a Muslim Terrorist and is out to destroy America. I think the mission was already accomplished with W.

I work PT as a fitness instructor. I am offered more hours than my body can take. It is fun but does not pay much unless you just work yourself to death!

My Husband works in High tech and has survived so many layoff's and re orgs we have lost count. We never feel secure!

We are both autoworkers, so you can imagine! My husband's plant is only running 3 weeks between Labour Day and Christmas and is closing next year. My plant will probably lay off a shift early next year..altho it has not been announced, the writing is on the wall. We are both high seniority, so are okay. In fact, we are taking buy-outs and going back to school. Our RRSPs (roughly equivalent to a 401K in the U.S.) are down a bit, but not wiped out.

my employer is holding our new years day checks until the next week...WHAT?

and when they got complaints they said our jobs were secure and our investments were secure...LOL...that was before the crash, I guess..

not much help from them, who knows?

I work for a huge bank...enough said !...jeez...

the economy is awful....everywhere...so sad...

The local Ford plant announced this week they are shutting down production beginning 11/26/08 and will not re-open until 1/05/09. This plant is scheduled to close permanently in 2011. It is currently the only plant producing the Ford Ranger.

I got sick in Dec, fired in Feb "for not being able to perform my job description" not because I was sick. Disability finally came in as of Sept. But no money between now and then.

Hubby is an automation engineer for a plastics plant making autoparts. One of the "Big 3" withheld payment for parts for 90+ days, the company filed for bankruptcy because it had no cash, and couldn't collect from the "Big 3" automaker - even though parts were shipped on time. No banks would loan to float them until they got the payment.

After the bankruptcy, a "subsidiary" of the same "Big 3" kindly bought out hubby's shop to put them back in business. Like that was not a hostile takeover. Anyway, if you wanted to work for the new company - you had to reapply for your job - lower benefits, lower wages, despite the UAW crying. Hubby's position is non-union - he's just happy to be employed at this point.

His plant always had good production, but the company closed the 2 that didn't. Then 2 other similar companies in town also went under - lots of layoffs 4 more plants closing. Unemployment is over 12% and that does not count people who's unemployment has run out.

So now hubby is actually busy with OT because the shops that are closing are ripping out machines and trying to make new assembly lines in Hubby's shop. People who are ripping out machines are doing just that, cutting the wiring, not sending schematics, hatchet job because they are ticked about losing their job. Hubby is having a fit trying to peice together equipment that have missing parts, no instructions, and wires cut with axes. But at least he's still working.

The reason his shop is working is because the parts they make are too big to make in china and ship. They can make and ship plastic straws and small junk for cheap but not really big, bulky plastic car parts. Actually cheaper to make them here.

Couldn't tell ya, got laid off in August!!! When they did it was all about everyone cutting back. Now 60k engineers are doing the work of 30k techs and still just getting 60k with reduced benifits.

I propose that all of the Cheif Executive Officers (of multi-billion companies) do the only good thing and commit to $1 per year salary for the next 10 years. Think of it, that alone would put back everyone elses 401ks and IRAs.

And don't tell me that they would be hurting if they did. Our local utility boss gets almost $3 Mill/year plus bonuses and continually wants rate increases! Really now do ya think he really needs it?

Yep, my company is cutting the hours we work. That is going to hurt a lot of people. There are folks at my company who have a couple of jobs just to stay afloat and even then there isn't enough money to pay all the bills.

we hired seasonal help this holiday. other teams have their main team at 30 hours and team leads at 32. my team is around 38 hours, and team leads at 41 hours. our christmas is still about the same as last year. people seem to still be buying.

I got an HSBC credit card and American express in november.

gas is 1.62 - 1.67 here.

school is expensive though. even with assistance. I hope Obama closes some of the schools and starts fresh, or lowers tutition before his idea of sending and giving more money to help people go to school. cause thats just a waste of money...