THe List Goes on and On

My dad and I were stuck in traffic and he would utter phrases of profanity every after the radio newscaster makes that significant pause. He is ashamed of what is happening in the economy and the effects that it brings in this country. He might not be equipped with facts and with the economic orchestrations of the world today, but the news tells it all. Broad sheets and primetime news channels might lose people’s interests in flashing numbers, percentage and financial ideologies. But they can never miss delivering the economic idea when something close and obvious gets hit. Loss of jobs.

These job losses started early last year, first on big financial companies where the monumental crisis was born. It took a lot of facts, goods inflations, merges and financial company closures to make us realize that we are in deep shit. We started to grope with what’s on the news and getting the facts at hand. Mere housewives were glued to ANC while trying to budget their family’s expenses. Everyone became their own economists, financial advisors and budget consultants. People thought that we’ve hit the bottom, with gas prices from PHP 30/liter to PHP 60/liter we were all facing the same pains of adjustments. We were shaken up as the whole world continues to suffer. Nothing became certain anymore, even the fresh new year.

They said we might have experienced the worst economic condition in 2008, but most analysts believe that we will continue to feel the aftershocks and more direct hits for 2009. Loss of jobs is one of them.

Aside from the usual financial companies like Morgan Stanley, UBS, HSBC and Citigroup, here are the companies that joined the bandwagon of slashing manpower. Both Local and Global.

HONDA
Philips (Slashing 6,000 jobs worldwide)
ING (Slashing 13,000 jobs worldwide)
CORUS (3500 jobs worldwide)
SPRINT (8,000 Jobs)
TEXAS instruments (Will slash 12%)
MOTOROLA (10,000)
QWEST (1000)
DELL (9,000)
YAHOO (1000)
SUN MICROSYSTEMS
XEROX (3,000)
CATERPILLAR (20,000)
PFIZER/WYETH MERGER (8,000)
GENERAL MOTORS (2,000)
MICROSOFT (5,000)
SONY JAPAN (5,000)
ERICSSON (5,000)
HARLEY DAVIDSON (1,000)
HOME DEPOT (7,000)


76,000 jobs from US and Europe corporations were slashed last Monday. 200,000 jobs are expected to be slashed in the Philippines mainly in the manufacturing and electronics industries. We’re talking about the first quarter only. We can never be more “uncertain” in the future. The list goes on and on, including my father’s creative phrases of profanities.