Economy improving?

[cgallery]

Poolhound's thread looking for leads for work in Chicago (for this daughter) got me to thinking.

"They" say the economy is showing signs of improvement.

I know that jobs are supposedly a lagging indicator.

But, is the economy improving, worsening, or moving sideways?

[billwmeyer]

I think it is improving, but it is going to be a long road with a lot of ups and downs. With that said, If jobs do not come around soon, it could get very bad.

Bill

[dbhost]

Well "They" said the same thing in 1929 too...

I can't go into the forces pushing this as it will get VERY political very quickly. But I feel we are looking at the tip of a very large iceberg due to choices that have been made, and are being made by the powers that be...

[Shep]

I happened to study economics in college and the current economic indicators push me to say that the economy will continue to deteriorate as inflation rises.

[cabinetman]

Construction trades are still slow in this area, but there are signs of slow improvement, which IMO, is better than no improvement.
.

[pelligrini]

There is a small improvement at our architectural office, but it is still really slow. I've got a feeling it will be slow for some time to come. We're not bleeding money like we were a year ago. We also cut half our staff and the few that are left are at 80% pay. Just looked at the year to date balance sheet last week; we made almost $500 profit. Which is better than loosing 10s of thousands.

[sparkeyjames]

The commercial real estate market crash is still coming up. Lets see what players take the chapter 7 bankruptcies when that happens.

That said the business that provides my employment, commercial printing, has seen a huge fall off. I'm down to 32 hours per week and I'm lucky if my check clears the bank. Case in point we used to do a lot of business for an ad agency we have not had them send us a job in over 6 months and they cut their staff down to 5 people where there used to be 20. If it were not for a local University that gives us just about all of their printing work I think we would be done for. Business's are asking for 30, 45 and sometimes 60 days to pay. Some are flat out telling us they will not pay for 60 days. Screwed if you do screwed if you don't. (filter caught the D word). The bad part is is if you want the business you cannot say no. The only upside is is that I get to either sleep in an extra hour every day or get up and surf the net for an hour before I go to work. I hope you guys don't mind me doing a plug for our business. We do lots of business cards (your design) full color 1000 for $30 plus shipping. Visit our website at http://www.dxp247.com.

[tommyt654]

Must be improving as all the large corporations are getting greedier and jacking up prices again,ie,..oil,banks,telecommunications firms,food stores, etc,etc,etc. They will drive us all back into the poorhouse again with good ole american greed.

[Ed62]

I picked moving sideways, will be for a long time. But I think the worst is over. Still a lot of bumps in the road, but things will get better. My glass is half full.

Ed

[Hoover]

I have a degree in business economics, B.S. 1969. The economy is moving sideways, the stimulus package has not yet released all its funds, but roadway repairs are picking up, and business construction has started to turn upward in the Puget Sound area. The job hiring is lagging, and probably be slower to get better until housing market gets rid of excess inventory. It will be a hard winter.