The dark side of layoffs and bad economy
#16
Re: The dark side of layoffs and bad economy
Is there nothing that man can't do?
BTW, is there supposed to be a bright side of layoffs and a bad economy? I suppose it's good if you're rich and can buy up a lot of assets cheap...?
#18
Re: The dark side of layoffs and bad economy
No, it was Harper who bet the whole Canadian economy on the gamble that the price would stay over $100. The tar sands yield the most expensive to produce oil and were clearly going to become useless first.
Now look what's happened.
Now look what's happened.
#20
Re: The dark side of layoffs and bad economy
Coal, gas, and ore did the same thing to the Ozzie dollar, .... and entirely eliminated the Australian car manufacturing industry.
#21
Re: The dark side of layoffs and bad economy
Not to mention the scale of environmental damage that has been done by the tar sands either.
#22
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 14,227
Re: The dark side of layoffs and bad economy
Tbf, they were heading there anyway. Western countries can't compete on wages, let alone working conditions and environmental protection.
#23
Re: The dark side of layoffs and bad economy
Now new employers have started to move in to the area, and a number of them are ...... cotton mills! The difference? The new mills have modern, reliable machinery, that need fewer staff and less maintenance, and it turns out that much of the issue with the old mills that failed was as much chronic under-investment as it was low wages in completing countries.
Last edited by Pulaski; Dec 10th 2015 at 9:27 pm.
#25
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 14,227
Re: The dark side of layoffs and bad economy
That is not entirely true, and the margins by which production in a low-labour-cost country is more profitable are much lower than they were just a few years ago. My part of the US lost a lot of cotton mills and the economy languished for more than a decade looking for new industries and employers.
Now new employers have started to move in to the area, and a number of them are ...... cotton mills! The difference? The new mills have modern, reliable machinery, and it turns out that the issue with the old mills that failed was as much chronic under-investment as it was low wages in completing countries.
Now new employers have started to move in to the area, and a number of them are ...... cotton mills! The difference? The new mills have modern, reliable machinery, and it turns out that the issue with the old mills that failed was as much chronic under-investment as it was low wages in completing countries.
But anything that is highly polluting / labour intensive always carries a risk of being off-shored if the volumes are high enough. And some of that will only have been brought forward because of the strong loonie.
(source: my armchair)
#26
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 0
Re: The dark side of layoffs and bad economy
I don't see any break down by race, but generally first nations have the highest rate overall compared to the general population.
#27
Re: The dark side of layoffs and bad economy
WTF, I'm out of there.
#28
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 0
Re: The dark side of layoffs and bad economy
That is not entirely true, and the margins by which production in a low-labour-cost country is more profitable are much lower than they were just a few years ago. My part of the US lost a lot of cotton mills and the economy languished for more than a decade looking for new industries and employers.
Now new employers have started to move in to the area, and a number of them are ...... cotton mills! The difference? The new mills have modern, reliable machinery, that need fewer staff and less maintenance, and it turns out that much of the issue with the old mills that failed was as much chronic under-investment as it was low wages in completing countries.
Now new employers have started to move in to the area, and a number of them are ...... cotton mills! The difference? The new mills have modern, reliable machinery, that need fewer staff and less maintenance, and it turns out that much of the issue with the old mills that failed was as much chronic under-investment as it was low wages in completing countries.
Took this town about a decade to somewhat recover from the exodus of industry in the late 90's into the early 00's.
The recovery is largely in the form of being close to Vancouver for commuters, and housing being 500k-600k instead of 1 million, and retail jobs at Wal-Mart, Home Depot and such.
Town will never be a place where people live and work in the community like it was with industry and is not a commuting town, but it did recover and is growing...
Now if housing ever collapses in Vancouver, the desirability of this place will likely do the same, most come here simply for lower cost houses and a 1 hour commute time.
Local worker wages have collapsed a great deal, but overall average wage is high as it's inflated by out of town workers who commute and tend to be in the 6 figure range income wise...
Largest employers who are not a government entity are Wal-Mart with 150 roughly employees, Home Depot with 100 and Save On Foods with 100. The next largest is Squamish Terminals (shipping port) with around 75 and another grocery store with 75 and the trash company with 75.
Gov't agencies are by far the largest employers, but are mostly skilled like nursing, teaching and such.
Last edited by scrubbedexpat091; Dec 10th 2015 at 9:43 pm.