Recession News: 40,000 Jobs Lost Today

New series of posts called "Recession News" as I am completely amazed at the how badly things are going around the world. Some say its the everything coming to and end...I patiently wait, and try and spend and save as much as I can simultaneously. What good is your savings account if everyone is gone. Anyway, with jobs going like hot cakes just having one will be enough to stunt on a motherfu**ah!

WASHINGTON — The recession is killing jobs at an alarming pace, with tens of thousands of new layoffs announced Monday by some of the biggest names in American business _ Pfizer, Caterpillar and Home Depot.

More pink slips, pay freezes and other hits are expected to slam workers in the months ahead as companies desperately look for ways to survive.

...the mounting toll was visible Monday as roughly 40,000 more U.S. workers got the grim news.

Read the rest of the story here.

The Economy Grinds Vancouver's Ritz-Carlton Tower Construction To A Hault.

I learned about the Ritz-Carlton Vancouver while courting the folks at Avenue Road for a job. Avenue Road is a sister company of Yabu-Pushelberg who is responsible for the interior design of the Vancouver Ritz-Carlton among many other hotels. The economy is terrible, so it is not terribly surprising to hear of this happening, but I hope the construction folks find some new work!

Construction has stopped at the site for the 58-story Ritz-Carlton tower in Vancouver. The real estate developer, the Holborn Group, says that the work stoppage is not due to the economic crisis but that they are looking at design changes to the structure and attached parkade. The $500 million project is currently just a hole in the ground. Workers have been sent home and the signs announcing the building were removed. The sales office is now only open by appointment. So far 50% of the condo project has been sold (20 stories are planned for the hotel and 38 for the condo units). No word yeti on when the project will resume. The luxury condos have been priced between $2.5 million and $10 million, with the penthouse priced at $28 million.

Props to Luxist. You can read more here.

Scotiabank projects recession in Canada, U.S.

Lights out bitc*es! If don't know well now you know that stock prices, and credit markets are crumbling. It is happening more so in the US than in Canada presently, but as most people will tell you when the US sneezes Canada catches a cold. This has led experts to believe that a recession is inevitable...no not Jeezy's album (though a solid piece of work)but an actual a significant decline in economic activity spread across real income, employment levels, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales paints a bleak 2009...

OTTAWA — Economists are gutting their forecasts for Canada's growth next year as the United States slides into recession and pulls the rest of the world down with it.

A Bank of Nova Scotia forecast to be published on Tuesday projects a recession for both Canada and the United States.

And Goldman Sachs is warning that its outlook for Canada, to be released later this week, is going to be significantly weaker as well.

“Although Canada has been somewhat more insulated from the direct impact of the credit crisis, it will not escape the effects of a significant contraction in U.S. consumer spending over the next few quarters,” Goldman Sachs economist Andrew Tilton said in a note to clients late Sunday. “As a result, we will be revising down our estimates for Canadian exports and overall growth.”

Read the rest of the article here.