Is your job affected by the credit crunch and current economic conditions?

AdrianHi

One of my long term clients is a mortgage broker and also insurance sales intermediary for the life, illness, payment protection and household insurance you generally try to sell alongside it - sold through nationwide network of independent mortgage brokers, IFA's and even a few high street building societies.
The insurance side of the business is running at 7% of the income it was at the peak of the housing boom. Yes that is SEVEN PERCENT. The mortgage side I'm not so sure but he did say that 8 out of 10 people who contact him he cannot help because their house value has dropped and the LTV is completely in the wrong place for mortgages available in the market.
Clever structure to the business though. I was able to cut the support fee I charge him by 30% because they don't demand enough of my time to justify the higher price now and I cut his web site hosting costs to 30% of the figure it was before by downsizing the web server hardware. Believe it or not he just about scrapes a small profit each month though he couldn't live off it for long.
When we get out of this mess he will still be in business... and so will I

giruzz

I may be affected, but only if we go it all gets much worse than it is now.

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Are you here on HSMP?

No. I'm EU citizen, the OH qualifies for HSMP but we choose to apply as EEA Family Member which is much faster and free.

Giruzz

Mushy61

I feel my job is at risk as a direct result of current economic conditions.

I work in a hotel and we are struggling like many others, fortunately I saw something like this coming a year or two back so made a determined effort to be mortgage and debt free, almost mission accomplished, so even if the worst did come to the worst I would'nt have a mortgage to worry about.

Also have a mate who has a stall in the town (Blackpool) and it's the worst he's seen in the 20 odd years he's been here. He has his head screwed on too though an paid off all his debts so we are in a better position than a lot of people I would imagine.

I certainly dont envy those who are in debt to the hilt with the oncoming economic situation.

gingin_2

I am a SAHM.... Husband is an IT consultant for a ........ US bank, he's been there a few years. We are stunned that he is still in work and has survived about 4 rounds of layoffs, but, I guess his time will be up soon. Will be glad to have at home for a while, as we hardly see him during the week. He turned down a job with Lehmans a year ago, thank goodness.

nearlyrich

Not sure.

I work in IT too and most of the companies who do what we do have laid people off recently. I have just lost 4 or 5 colleagues but have been assured my job is safe for now.

milliejo

I feel my job is at risk as a direct result of current economic conditions.

I work in the legal profession and its a nightmare - every firm in the area is making redundancies - some are on the 2nd or 3rd round & we are constantly hearing about firms going out of business or having to merge. Nobody I know thinks their job is secure and some firms are even getting rid of partners

fc123

I feel my job is at risk as a direct result of current economic conditions.

I am an independent boutique in ''prime'' (but feeling distictly sub-prime at the mo) location. Niche, bit edgy (but not as edgy as once were...needs as must and all that...had to go a bit mainstream because the rent doubled).

Trading 22 years (and had vintage shop/wholesale export business prior that did a killing during the 90's).

Shop rent doubled in 2004 (backdated to 2003) based on a new letting....that turned out to have 'cloaked' incentives (think Inside Track behaviour) so we are now paying way too much.

T/O down since Sept 07 by 30%. T/O then fell off a cliff 2 weeks ago.

BUT..........Started selling to on-line e-tailer (the 'a' one) and delivered 1 st order end Aug. All sold out in 5 days...1 style in 24 hrs. The volumes are huge to us.
Sold some more...sold out...and more....sold out...turned down gigantic repeat order due to insufficient cashflow and not enough production capacity.....for now.

Receiving e-mails from all over the place. Shop in Bahrain wants to stock us, shop in LA also...loads of requests for diff things and thanks from happy customers finding us through google search.

So.....I lose in one hand and gain in another....but we are negotiating with LL as we are also under rent review...further increase of 70 odd %....and I want out.

So I think I will make myself redundant from one job and develop the new one....if possible.

Downside; we have full personal liability on the lease and they will bankrupt us (out of spite mainily) if we don't pay and play the game with the rent review etc.
We have decided not to play.
We are negotiating suspension of rent review (so we can try to re-assign lease) and a reduction on current rent.

We will lose our family home if we cannot pay what they demand. Asos may subsidise it for a while...but it cannot go on like this forever. I can't keep up 2 f/t (and very F/T too) jobs for ever and ever either.

To keep it together I am moving back to London in Nov (so away from DD and OH weekdays) as I need to be near Brick Lane etc plus our house has lots of space for F/T workspace.

12 months ago I would never have forecast this scenario in a million years! The good and the bad bits.

izzybusy23

Not sure.

I believe I work in what should be one of the most 'safest' jobs around, and that is the children and families area of social services which is always overstretched and too much work coming in. However, I put 'unsure' because I do not feel it will be the economic climate that forces my job so much, but the fact that the government cannot stop restructuring and making changes and feel then that reason alone may make my job vulnerable... which in turn may well make it hard for me to find another job on the 'outside'.

Gorgeous_George

I was affected. Because of the crunch, they couldn't afford to let me go

GG

Realy

I may be affected, but only if we go it all gets much worse than it is now.

Run a company supplying equipment in to schools. 40% up on last year.
But if schools go bust we know we are in trouble, but marked "I may be" as you never know.