Posted on 05/19/2023 11:20:55 AM PDT by mikelets456
I used the link above but I mostly want to see if others are slow at work. We sell processing equipment to the food, pharma and plastic industries. We're dead---slower than 2016 and it's getting worse. Our shop is going to 4 day work weeks with no overtime allowed and most likely we will have layoffs in the office. I have been here for 35 years and have never seen it this slow. Heck, this company started during the great depression---if this keeps up it will be closed in a matter of 6 months. Our competitors and customers are saying the say thing....inventory is growing and no one is buying. I believe we're being lied to about the economy because this has become a grave concern.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Everyone I talk to with jobs related to production or manufacturing have slowed down very noticeably in the last few months. Remember when no one could hire enough? Not it seems like layoffs are the new buzz
Great Depression, Part Two, is pending.
Yes, business is slowing, it’s a recession.
“Heck, this company started during the great depression-—if this keeps up it will be closed in a matter of 6 months.”
Cause the blind fail to see the current onset of Great Depression 2.0
Yes. We deal with manufacturers as well as provide end-user services. The former has shown severe contraction. People don’t have the money right now and are trying to weather the storm.
“Great Depression, Part Two, is pending.”
Yep absolutely.
No, not at all, real busy for me, but since I am basically a drug dealer, I always have a lot of work and get about 5 new customers every week and it never stops.
Same thing with the chip shortage. There is none and folks I know can’t sell any!
Our housing and infrastructure products business has been slowing (siding, roofing, PVC pipe including residential/municipal/mining, fencing, decking) with the housing start decline. Our chemicals business is doing ok not great, with caustic underpinning our profitability, along with reasonable energy and raw mat’l costs. Our raw material pricing is pinned to natural gas, not oil, so we’ve been pretty well positioned versus companies that crack naptha (mostly overseas competition).
we do lighting installations for mostly residence. Our customers are typically high middle / upper class.
Been in business since 2004. In 2008 work stopped like we hit a wall, this time around it’s been more of a slow crash but I can definitely feel it. If it wasn’t for our long time return customers and referrals we’d be in big trouble. New calls have dropped off to the point where sometimes I wonder if there is something wrong with our phone system.
The other problem is that a year ago we were scrambling to find employees. Forced to pay them more then we normally would because there were so many jobs choices. Now it’s a double whammy with slow downs combined with employees making top dollar. I pray I don’t have to lay off any of these young guys. The economy is definitely worse then what’s being portrayed.
Finally figured out the Fedboys are lying? Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!
food and interest payments on debt are sucking up all disposable income.
The aerospace and rocket manufacturing business is um, booming ;-)
And the flower industry is blossoming
I work for one of the largest money making companies on the planet. Sometimes we are busy and sometimes we are slow, but we have been in constant hiring mode since COVID because we can’t keep employees at my site. So right now we are kind of slow but through the constant attrition of employees we stay fairly busy.
Thanks for your response. My BIL owns a packaging company and we have a good friend that owns a few Melting Pots and they’ve never been able to find good help since Covid and now they’re slowing down as well. Two industries that have been strong for 20-30 years are suddenly crashing along with mine (manufacturing). I rarely get rattled, but this time around seems different.
😃
interest rates are a huge issue. Lot of these Gen z’ers came into their adulthood thinking 2% was a high rate. They’re probably sh*tting themselves looking at their credit card balances and personal loan payments.
Well, I’m slow in retirement.
But then...I’m old.
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