Well Sean, i have worked for myself since leaving school and find i'm working harder for less in 2005 !

my feeling is the little bloke on the street is a thing of the past and if you can't comply you will have to shut the doors !

motortrade insurance up from £1200 last year to a wopping £6000 this year with never a claim in the last 20 yrs !
I think the "The BiG wheels" are turning well .
ie TESCO ,Oil companies, and lots of other Big fish.
But i also think that when they realise the LITTLE wheels have stoped. the ressesion will already be here!

I'm in architecture and we have got more work now than at any time in the last two and half years (since i started there). Big projects as well such as a £40million hospital.

Well Shaun (that was the real Shaun and not Shaun's accountant using the BDG ID?:puzzled:) you've opened an interesting discussion here. There are clearly more economists on this thread than you can shake a stick at.

I've seen discussions about recession ever since I started in financial services in 1987. My advice is, don't start worrying about it until you're forced to off load ALL of your toys, including the beer fridge :P:P

... or off load the house and move into the garage with the bikes and the beer fridge :devil::D

Something is very clearly not right with the economy now. It is interesting that you also work with Government departments Shaun as without doubt they have cut spending this year. It started with the announcement of the election which indicated that the election was to be closer fought that it was in the end. But the worrying thing is that since the election Government departments have not got back to the spending that they were this time last year.
The IT industry (hardware manufacturers) has been a very tough place to be since 2000, a year ago things looked to be getting better but when the election was announced and with the likes of HP stuffing the channel through with product that was not selling (as the manufacturer pre order) we saw a lot of out of date product being sold at less than cost over the last couple of months. Now with that stock sold through we are seeing margin recovery as prices rise.

Interesting Ian becasaue most of our work is ultimately funded by the Government!

i am in hard landscaping patios garden paths driveways water features decking etc etc-- there has been a definite downward trend in business in the last summer, we have had less offers of larger jobs above 20k than in previuos years the jobs that we have had we have to do them with a more economic viewpoint i.e using less luxurious materials such as natural stone and hardwoods and having to go for the cheaper options in the way of materials just to get the work- with the housing market slowing down i thought that people would spend money improving what they have instead of totally upgrading to newer/larger properties but this hasnt seemed to be the case -- people seem to be holding on to thier hard earned or simply paying back what credit they have enjoyed over the last few years- any way not been an easy year so far so not looking forward to winter:(-- a lot of trades in the local building industry have also experienced the same

I'm in naval architecture part of a multi-national into hotels, trains, boats etc. They have been selling off bits of the company and laying people off for the last two years to boost share prices. So have the competition. Pensions cut to f**k all. I will be lucky to have a job at the end of the year. I may even have to move from the 620 DD to the 583class:mad:

Economy
 

Due to the way the government twist figures does anyone know the true state of unemployment numbers?
As they seem to be hiden behind disability and the new job seekers allowance etc.
All I can say is our firm (80 million turn over 2004) is finding this year very hard.
Has the so called housing boom been caused by the estimated 1 million asylum seekers and 1.5 million illegal immigrants that need housing? strange that the birth rate amoung the British population is slowing or stagnent but we are still building massive numbers of new homes.:mad:

Recession? Depends where you are in the food chain.

I have worked in the sign industry for 20 years and many of us are struggling to make any sort of profit. Overheads like insurance, rates and power can be crippling as madmav states.

The general trend in wages is down. You only have to look in the papers to see ''ordinary jobs '' paying £12k and managerial jobs paying £15k to realise this. People who already work for larger companies ( Oil etc. )- don't know how lucky they are. I have friends who earn £35k plus index linked pensions etc. who complain!

In small ( Say up to 15 people ) companies many can't afford to contribute to a pension as their wages are so low. This is paving the way for a two tier society in the near future. If wages for the lower paid continue to reduce in real terms they will take full advantage of the credit on offer and it won't take much to tip them over the edge into reposessions and the like.

There , I feel better now that's off my chest :D

888heaven

It's been nice knowing you. I imagine you will be ethnically cleansed within minutes.:devil: