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Company collapses set to worsen in 2010
stueyhants
Posts: 589 Forumite
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article6992052.ece
The number of British companies in financial distress rose by 6 per cent in the last three months of 2009, to 140,000, raising fears the worst effects of the recession are yet to come......
Tax revenues and employment looking likely to get worse
The number of British companies in financial distress rose by 6 per cent in the last three months of 2009, to 140,000, raising fears the worst effects of the recession are yet to come......
Tax revenues and employment looking likely to get worse
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Comments
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Its started again in and around our northern traditional manufacturing town (West Yorkshire) with a further spate of administations and factory closures announced since the middle of last week. We are being told by the powers that be that the recovery is just around the corner but it certainly doesn't feel to be. I'm lucky that I have just found new employment and the outlook isn't too bad on a personal level but many of my friends and relatives cannot say the same I'm afraid to say and whilst I don't worry for me, I do worry for them. Just how bad it gets is anyones guess.
The other thing that worries me is the shift in employment from traditional jobs to "tech" jobs. By this I mean over the last decade or so, thousands of jobs have been lost from the closure of the large engineering works in and around our area (and I know as I was one of them!). Nothing has ever emerged to replace these. What we have ended up with is a "media centre" for people who design and program computer games once they have finished university. Whilst I fully appreciate that you have to move with the times, it leaves a big hole in the community. There are some very well skilled engineers in their early fifties who are stacking shelves in the local Morrisons or working in the B&Q warehouse to keep the bills paid which is a shocking waste of talent (although one family friend absolutely loves working down B&Q but hey ho!). These people are never going to get these technology jobs and just have to find whatever work there is locally.
It seems a real shame all this knowledge is being squandered. I was an apprentice and learnt my engineering trade through similar people who I owe so much to. I was looking forward to doing the same to the next generation but at this rate I'll have no one to pass the skills on to and that saddens me deeply.0 -
These people are never going to get these technology jobs and just have to find whatever work there is locally.
It seems a real shame all this knowledge is being squandered. I was an apprentice and learnt my engineering trade through similar people who I owe so much to. I was looking forward to doing the same to the next generation but at this rate I'll have no one to pass the skills on to and that saddens me deeply.
You've summed it up. Unfortunately those engineering skills, generally talking, are not as highly in demand with a pay-packet your generation and the previous generation enjoyed to go with it. You've got people around to tap who can do the job cheaper. If the national and global demand was there with money to match, your 50 y.o. + friends wouldn't be stacking shelves in supermarkets for little more than minimum wage.
Except for personal fulfilment and the practical benefit of such knowledge, you wouldn't want a son or daughter to train up in any sector where there are fewer well-paid opportunities for them. The real kick is the people who formerly made a good living in many traditional jobs will find it much harder to do so from here on in.
The video games industry itself hasn't got anything to feel guilty about. Rockstar for instance has a few studios in the UK, employing people. And being smart isn't always enough. Investment in building video games doesn't always pay off, but when you have a hit it can pay off big time. It's also still in it's infancy and requiring ever smarter people. I know I'm burnt out from my time involved and couldn't easily get my head around all the latest innovations and developments.
From Times Online
November 13, 2009
The driving force behind Grand Theft AutoIn his 35 years, Houser has gone from the genteel surroundings of St Paul's School and Christchurch College, Oxford, to be one of the main creative forces behind the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise, whose last main instalment, Grand Theft Auto IV, was the most successful entertainment product in history, until Modern Warfare 2 came along.
Shaven-headed, Houser sits back in a comfortable chair at the Chelsea headquarters of Rockstar, the games label he created with his elder brother, Sam. At each question, he pauses to formulate an answer, before delivering it word-perfect, punctuated occasionally by an excited waving of the arms.Telegraph
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has become one of only a few entertainment franchises to take more than $1 billion (£625 million) in revenue.
Published: 8:35AM GMT 14 Jan 20100 -
The other thing that worries me is the shift in employment from traditional jobs to "tech" jobs.
It seems a real shame all this knowledge is being squandered. .
Even I will admit it is somewhat sad, but such is the way of life.
I'm sure the steam train engineers said the same thing, and the horse drawn cart wheelmakers before them, and the weavers when the automated loom was invented, the stonemasons probably looked in horror at the first mass produced clay brick and thought, "it'll never catch on, this country needs real artisans producing real stonework of value" etc......
As Dopester points out, even technology jobs have a need for constant evolution of skills, and learning of completely new applications.
The world moves on. The jobs of yesterday vanish, and are replaced with something new. Highly educated, ambitious or intelligent people can adapt and evolve. Many others can't.
But if we are not to have a world full of people employed in redundant industries, usually ending up under state control, producing things we no longer want or need, wasting resources and money doing so, then such evolution is necessary. No matter how painful it may be in the short term.“The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived, and dishonest – but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.
Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”
-- President John F. Kennedy”0 -
Sorry it's only Sky News - there's probably a better report somewhere - but this brief account of a recent survey explains why people are perceiving these economic times differently:
http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/100118/140/iuwvd.html
The recession has exacerbated inequalities that were already there.
Is it a case of 'On yer bike?' As Dopester suggests, the jobs that have been lost haven't gone to the South East; more like China, India & South East Asia.
That's a long way to pedal...0 -
HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »Even I will admit it is somewhat sad, but such is the way of life.
I'm sure the steam train engineers said the same thing, and the horse drawn cart wheelmakers before them, and the weavers when the automated loom was invented, the stonemasons probably looked in horror at the first mass produced clay brick and thought, "it'll never catch on, this country needs real artisans producing real stonework of value" etc......
As Dopester points out, even technology jobs have a need for constant evolution of skills, and learning of completely new applications.
The world moves on. The jobs of yesterday vanish, and are replaced with something new. Highly educated, ambitious or intelligent people can adapt and evolve. Many others can't.
But if we are not to have a world full of people employed in redundant industries, usually ending up under state control, producing things we no longer want or need, wasting resources and money doing so, then such evolution is necessary. No matter how painful it may be in the short term.
TBH I feel a lot like a highly skilled blacksmith would have done just as people bought cars en masse.
:-(0 -
HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »But if we are not to have a world full of people employed in redundant industries, usually ending up under state control, producing things we no longer want or need, wasting resources and money doing so, then such evolution is necessary. No matter how painful it may be in the short term.
Times move on and sadly that is going to see some industries - and the skills used to drive them - disappear. The tragedy for so many of these is that the industry could adapt and survive if only it or its workers had the imagination. OK so globalisation means that some aren't going to be competitive, but don't the steel and car manufacturing unions not have the slightest bit of regret about what they did?0 -
stueyhants wrote: »http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article6992052.ece
The number of British companies in financial distress rose by 6 per cent in the last three months of 2009, to 140,000, raising fears the worst effects of the recession are yet to come......
Tax revenues and employment looking likely to get worse
Support your local traders then!:T0
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