The Consumer Board released October’s Consumer Confidence Index number today and it was below what anyone was expecting. It fell to 47.7 for the month which is the Board’s second lowest reading since May.

to put the number into perspective; a number higher than 90 means that the economy is doing well and anything above 100 says that there is strong growth in the economy. The lowest that the Consumer Board has ever measured was the record low of 25.3 in February 2009. It only took a few months to climb back up to 53.4 last month.

The reason that consumer confidence is so important is because it is the number that tells how much consumers are spending on items. Because spending on these items accounts for 70% of the United States economy (according to the government), it is an important economic indicator.

So, what does a drop in the consumer confidence index number mean? It shows that consumers have a grim outlook of the future.

According to Lynn Franco, the director of the Conference Board’s Consumer Research Center, “Consumers also remain quite pessimistic about their future earnings, a sentiment that will likely constrain spending during the holidays.”

This news is not welcomed by the retailers in the country. Last year, spending around the holidays fell to levels not seen since the 1960′s. With so many retailers across the United States still hurting and struggling and also going out of business, many of them are counting on this holiday season to prop them up and maybe put them in the black for the year.

The Consumer Board gets the Consumer Confidence Index by sending surveys to 5,000 homes across the country. For October’s numbers, the cutoff date was October 21st.

I honestly think all the figures and indexes like this put people into worry-mode. When people are truly worried about their jobs and their finances they don’t spend. For the past couple of months, people have been worried about their income even with plenty of job security. Jobs aren’t being lost at the rate that they were and there are plenty of places where people are working and not having to worry whether or not their job will be there the next day.

The Consumer Confidence Index was something that we didn’t have before the 60′s and it seems as though the country’s consumer spending was not that bad through the 50′s (after WWII anyway).

What do you think about the Consumer Confidence Index and any of the other financial indexes that come out telling you how the economy is doing? Are there any of these indicators that you follow to tell you how things are going?

I believe I would follow the unemployment numbers a bit more closely than this one.

Source

In our day and age, people are hyperconnected; meaning they are always connected to some device where they can be reached. Things, of course, weren’t always this way. Now, if your boss wants to get in touch with you all he or she has to do is pick up the phone or sent out an email. This has led to some employees working while they are off work; either after hours or on off days.

In response to this, a lawsuit was filed in the Eastern District of New York against T-Mobile by employees alleging that they were required to be on call and respond to some customer problems while they were scheduled to be off or weren’t getting paid for the work. During the time they were on call they weren’t getting overtime.

According to the lawsuit, the employees (some former and current), were required to “review and respond to numerous T-Mobile related emails and text messages at all hours of the day and night, whether or not they were logged into T-Mobile’s computer based time keeping system.” The employees were also required to be a part of conference calls during off days and during lunch and other times that they were off the clock.

There was another, similar lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of Wisconsin by a real estate worker who wasn’t being paid overtime for responding to maintenance issues after hours.

All of this shows that people are expected and sometimes have to be connected at all times for job security and some employers are taking advantage of that. You should be getting paid for all the hours that you’re working, even if you’re at home. If you work past 40 hours a week, you should be getting paid overtime. This is definitely true if you’re an hourly worker. If you’re a salaried worker, sometimes the line can be a bit blurred, but that isn’t any excuse for your employer to take advantage of you and your constant connection to the world.

Some people are simply addicted to being connected and doing things that involve work. This includes those who have an addiction to work.

If you are checking your email after work then you may not be on the clock for that, but if your boss is asking you to respond to work related emails after hours then you should be getting paid for the work that you’re doing then.

Have you found your place in a recession proof industry?

Question:

With the recession looking like it might be winding down (hopefully), but with unemployment still hovering just below 10%, have you found a job where no matter how bad the recession has gotten, you don’t feel threatened?

Answer:

I don’t have a job, so I’m hoping that some of you will answer this. I don’t think that there is one person out there who doesn’t worry about their own job security from time to time. Perhaps the exception is nurses and people who work in the medical field. I have a friend who is a RN and I really don’t think she ever worries about whether or not her job will be there the next day. I would love that kind of job security in a field that I actually wanted to work in.

As the economy has proven, nothing is fully recession proof. In an emotionally driven society and a fairly unpredictable financial condition, job security has tended to mean nothing and cost cutting has prevailed beyond the course of the job market. However, there are some careers that have still proven to be ‘recession proof’. Some are very lucrative, rewarding careers, and still some do not require four year degrees or time extensive training.

Health care is a very rewarding career, and job security is inevitable, especially with experience and tenure, simply due to the fact that illnesses and death are just parts of life, uninfluenced by economic status or stability. People do not stop getting sick if the economy is down. When you think of health care, you think of doctors and nurses, but unbeknownst to those not privy to the inner workings of the industry, it is a large field with endless opportunities if you have the patience and patients, homonym intended. There are several jobs that one can have in the health care field, some of which do not require a doctorate or bachelor’s degree.

Physician assistants have the same functions as a doctor except for opening up their own practices or medicating patients, in some cases. They do not earn as much as doctors or receive the potential notoriety, but they are well above median salary. Nurse practitioners can earn enviable salaries and even specialize or start up specialty practices. Often times, people visiting their general physician will actually see a nurse practitioner in the office. Diagnostic cardiac sonographers are also popular careers with a high demand rate due to the technological specialization. They collect reflected echoes and Doppler signals from images and tracings of a person’s heart, using ultrasound equipment to assess the condition of the different functions and valves of the human heart, very useful due to the high rate of cardiac illness in a fast food society.

Physician assistants must go through a two-year training program, and at least two years of college and a license exam, and the median salary is $62.000 per year. A nurse practitioner does need a master’s degree in nursing and the median salary is $74,000 per year. A cardiac sonographer only needs a two-year associate’s degree, or in some cases, a 1-year certificate in diagnostic sonography while a laboratory technician needs a bachelor’s degree with coursework in chemistry, biology, and statistics and state certification and licensing upon completion. Both of these supporting careers have a median salary of over $50,000 a year each.

With a specialized technical background and education, a rewarding career can be found in the manufacturing industry. In an earlier article, we discussed how Hewlett-Packard was downgrading production but hiring in development. This is a booming job market if you can be placed in a job that focuses on the promise or specialization of a market that is beginning to cycle forward quicker than usual, in an effort to come out of the recession ahead of a respective field. Some newer jobs with high skill levels are opening up and they are really only requiring some vocational training and/or apprenticeships.

Computer control operators use computer numerically controlled machines (or CNC) to make precision products for a variety of machines and automobiles. CNC programmers develop programs that run the tools the operators use. They review computer aided design blueprints of the products and determine what the machine will have to do, in a sequence of events, to cut, shape, and assemble the part. The number of jobs in these fields is projected to decline slightly over the next seven years, but with this type of training, it is inevitable that a CNC operator or programmer will have endless opportunities in development fields of all sorts, especially in a society that is always technologically developing, also due to the limited number of professionals entering training programs and difficulty companies have in hiring workers with the necessary skills and knowledge. Operators and programmers need either a two-year degree or combination of vocational degree and apprenticeship. An operator can make $33,000 a year and a programmer can make $44,000.

Although the financial services industry has significantly declined over the past year, especially in the recession, actuarial services, an overlooked financial sector, is still booming. Actuaries develop, price, and evaluate financial insurance products such as life, auto, health or homeowners insurance. The demand is already up, and experts agree that this sector of the financial field will grow exponentially before 2016.

Even amid the downfall of the financial industry in the recession, financial analysts and planners are still necessary and popular. Analysts evaluate the economic outlook of sectors and industries for organizations to invest in or assess. Personal financial planners and advisors help individuals with personal investments and finances. Financial analysts can work in a variety of industries, though some might consider going the self-employment route as they can make three to five times what a salaried employee is making, more along a freelance line. An actuary needs a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, statistics, or finance and the related professional certification and makes a median salary of $86,000. A financial analyst normally needs a bachelor’s degree in finance and can make around $48,000. A financial planner needs a bachelor’s degree in finance and to pass the certification examination. He or she can make a median salary of $61,000.

In the current status of the economy, people currently selling their homes are battling the lowest prices in decades. Buyers see the greatest purchasing value in as much time, and can only take advantage of those prices if they have the credit, cash-in-hand, job security, and patience. In southern Pennsylvania, just north of my home in Maryland, there is a beautiful home on sale for $279,000. When it listed, just before the recession kicked real estate prices to the gutter, this house went on the market for $386,000. $279,000 is actually an unusually high price for a house in this market considering that, nationwide, the first quarter of 2009 was roughly 13.6% lower than the first quarter of 2008, although the actual amount is debatable, depending on time frames and types of homes. The Case-Shiller index reports a decline as high as 19.1%.

The people who are best surviving the recession are homeowners who do not have to sell and buyers with good credit and cash reserves. Home building numbers are also down. I am not a prospective buyer right now, but just from curiosity, sometimes to just assess the housing market, I look at local homes on the market. Some have been on the market for quite some time, with prices reducing all the time. Sales are going up though.

One of my best friends bought a house recently in New Hampshire with her fiancé. With her fiancé’s decent credit, joint savings, and a little luck, these first time home buyers found a good deal. First time home buyer stats are up due to necessity and ambition. It is currently considered the best time to be a first time buyer. It is estimated that half of the country’s buyers right now are first time buyers, one of the largest numbers ever. There are many opportunities to buy that dream house right now and all buyers have the opportunity to exercise their options.

Even though the price you sell your house for will be low, remember that you can negotiate a low price on another home. If you work a little harder, you can find a very good deal. Fred Soule is the media’s recent example. He sold his Fort Wayne, Indiana home after two weeks on the market. He only got $5,000 less than he had hoped and totally broke even when he bought another home on the other side of the city. When he knew what his house was selling for, he quickly negotiated a good sale on the house he wanted. He believes the sale was worth it. Not only can you make a decent house swap, if you have the credit and find a bank or loan office that is in good shape, it is also a great time to refinance.

Barry Zigas, director of housing policy for the Consumer Federation of America in Washington, D.C . has the best piece of advice for homeowners right now, “Your home is not an ATM, and your home is not an investment. Your home is a place to live…. It’s probably not the time to buy a house.” Home values are the worst in the Fort Myers, Florida area and some areas in California like Sacramento and Riverside/San Bernadino, just south of Los Angeles. The values in Fort Myers dipped a whopping 59.1% and the affected areas in California are down 34%-39%. Some towns are seeing home values increase. Cumberland, Maryland is seeing great increases where median prices soared 21.1%. The major Iowa tri-city (including Davenport, Iowa, Moline, Iowa, and Rock Island, Illinois) saw an increase of 13.8%. Some Midwest areas like Columbia, Missouri, are up 6%.

Part 1

Vices.

Liquor – Of course liquor is an industry that is recession proof. Like Chris once told me, when things are good, people drink….when things are bad, people drink. The only thing that changes is the quality of the liquor. While common sense tells me that people would buy the cheaper alcohol, it may not be so. In an article by Lauren Shepherd for the AP in September 2007, people were still willing to spend more for a higher quality product. I’m sure opinions have changed now that gas costs at least $1.00 more a gallon than it did in September… Maybe not?

Tobacco – I don’t know the prices of tobacco products. I can’t tell you if the prices have gone up with everything else. However, I understand why this is a recession proof industry. I think it’s so weird how the companies are putting out commercials basically begging people to quit smoking…but they are all still going strong. I have a lot of opinions about smoking that I won’t share, so there isn’t much that I have to say other than. Here it is: Tobacco is a good industry to find some job security.

Gambling – Gambling still brings in plenty of people who enjoy this form of entertainment. However, in April the Las Vegas Sun printed an editorial about Las Vegas not being recession proof. The article said that 20,000 jobs in residential construction had been eliminated. It says that most of the workers are illegal immigrants, and as they are losing their jobs, they’re leaving. As they leave, their money goes too. That’s just Vegas though, and they still have plenty of tourists. Places that are local, like Robinsonville (Tunica) is to Memphis, are doing well because of the local people. Places like Vegas are out in the middle of nowhere. The only reason most would go to Vegas, would be to go to Vegas. Sure, gambling isn’t the only thing to do there, but it’s accounts for a lot of what’s going on.

Next time Part 2: Debt Collection!

I find it strange that this came the same day speculation about the government having to bail out Freddy and Fannie May came into the headlines. The FDIC says it is going to cost $8 Billion to takeover IndyMac. Another problem the government has to clean up because of the poor lending practices.

This whole mortgage crisis can be avoided in the future if banks would just not lend to people who can’t afford the mortgage. It’s that simple. I mean, yea, people will lose their jobs and foreclosures will happen, but not at the rate they’re happening now. I mean, get a fixed rate… no one can afford to pay a 30 year mortgage at credit card rates.

While it is partially the banks’ fault for lending to people who have poor credit ratings and little job security, I think it’s also the people who are buying these homes’ fault. People have to do lots of research before they buy a house. They should know what happens if they lose their job, can they keep their house? What happens when their variable rate adjusts to 15%??? It’s better to spend a bit more and rent than have a foreclosure on your credit rating.