I've been unemployed since Dec. 12th.,.....not really finding anything out there close to what I was making ($19.00 per hour) I was working for USG (United States Gypsum) company, had excellent benefits too. It's kinda hard to be able to pay the bills and try to go north to my cabin in Price County for snowmobiling too!
Anybody else going thru this too?
Share your stories please.

My sister got layed off from bergstrom in sturgeon bay last fall and is still looking, with only a couple of offers which one was at a dump of a company and the other last week said they would hire her but they couldn't afford the position after all. Her old boss is now in appleton at a car dealer and is trying to get my sister in there now.

For me work is alot slower at the cummins branch i work at and overtime is very minimul, my part time job i was told i will be the only guy on saturdays and can only work 3-4 hours insted of 6-8. Things are tightening up everywhere and jobs are getting harder to come by

I got laid off on Oct. 31 from the phone company in Cable, WI. Made good money too. sucks, I feel like a bum in the frickin soup line, there just isn't anything out there though that wants to pay! Oh well, things will pick up in the next month, hopefully!

Been laid off for about 3 weeks now.Will hopefully pick up in spring if not before

I personally fear this daily, company I work for is doing well yet..........yet. We are a contract company and have our eggs in multiple baskets so when one company pulls work back in house we still have others.

The company across the street "Gleason Real" just laid off a bunch of the work force yesterday and a large company "Metalcraft" across town laid off over 100ppl few weeks ago and if Caterpillar don't get the federal assistance that same company will be laying off even more. A friend of mine that works there said could go back as far as 1989 seniority.

We had 1400 applicants looking for work in one week.
My previous employer announced the Thursday before xmas that everyone was laid off till Jan 5th only to push the start date out 2 more weeks and then only called back a skeleton crew to work 1 short shift instead of 2 10hr shifts.
Today I hear that 4 of the ppl didn't get called back in Jan and won't be getting called back. Also yesterday they announced that everyone is laid off again, just this time its till March 7th

F&F

I work construction so yes I am laid off right now. We picked up 1 big job, hopefully more will come our way.

What kind of construction do you do? Milling and pulverizing here.

Yeah it is nasty, good friend got laid off since November then eventually eliminated, my Mom got severanced after 20 plus years at the same hospital.


My company is doing good still but we have been asked to rank and rate all the employees... yikes

union sprinkerfitter still working a few more weeks them we are out of work 70-100 guys on the bench

concrete, mainly curb and gutter. Do alot of street resonstruction so pretty much everything.

Its tough,

I am in real estate so I have been unemployed most of the last three years, it hasnt been all bad, I have been able to knock a few out of the park which takes some of the sting out of it. What sucks for me is that I go to work everyday and I dont get paid until something sells. Add a wife in grad school and it just compounds the issue, tuition,books,advertising for me,travel expenses,e&o insurance,realtor dues, oh yeah now lets throw mortgage in there along with heat, electric and property taxes, clothes and school for my little girl, food and vet bills for the dogs, groceries,car and home insurance,vehicle maintainence, etc etc., it never ends. And to top it all off, I have a wife,girlfriend and truck payment that are all late...LOL JK!. Fortunately, I have been in this business for 14 years and was able to stash some $$$ for a rainy day and my wife still makes decent money but the bank account is disappearing at an alarming rate. The sad part is that it is going to get worse before it gets better, but you got to stay the course and try to make something happen. The good part is there are a ton of smoking deals out there in real estate. Hang in there everyone, it is going to take a few years to get out of this but it will get better.

DS

Yep they have plans to start firing soon as thats what my company did a few months back. What really sucks is that my part time job which could also be my back up full time job is really tight on money so that kills an option for me. All you can do is keep going and not really worry to much since if its going to happen it will.

Thanks for sharing your stories eveybody!
Last week I heard on the news that the weekly benefit for unemployement was going to be raised by $25. Anybody receive this yet? Got my check today & it was the same amount as usual. The news said the raise was going in effect Feb.22 what the heck!
Anyway, I hope it does soon & I hope eveyone else has good luck finding some work! Just gonna keep looking for now & hopefully be able to head up to my cabin in Fifield for some riding soon!

States can accept or decline any part of the stimulus package. Eight states have turned down some parts already. Also the $25 would be on next weeks check which would be for this week. Also don't forget the first $2400 of unemployment would be tax free.

Off since Dec. Asphalt paving company in Milwaukee. My foreman called me and told me he was goin to work for Waukesha Cty permanently. He said it don't look good for us. Who knows. We have a new fella runnin the country and it looks like he's trying to do something here. S#!t can only get better is the way I look at it.

P&D in Waukesha here.

Oh my God... Not PAYNE in the COLON!!!!!
Mathy Const. here...........

Well - we are always hiring, however I think thats even in a slow down. I think starting wage is about 15 bucks an hour, full health insurance for family I think is 60 bucks a month. Pretty much all the OT you want, approx 4 weeks of vacation your first year and 16 paid sick days a year. Only H.S diploma required.

Problem is, its a 24/7 business, and your surrounded by the worlds worst people, all day every day.

Mathy? I think I heard of them. Are they still in business??? LOL

What do you do?

^^^Works in a correction facality.

The federal recovery act includes a $25 per week increase for all eligible claimants beginning the week of February 22, 2009. Wisconsin is moving swiftly to provide the weekly supplement as soon as possible but there may be some delay while we work with the federal government on logistical issues. Regardless, all eligible claimants will get the additional benefit and it will be retroactive to the start date of February 22.


I kow everyone knows they are going to get this but how long will it take??

Yes I work for the dept of corrections.

WOW....After all the work they had last year....I work for them sometimes,but out of Madison.Worked a few nights too,and not much sleep those weeks. I run a pair of quad axle dump trucks,and the word i got last week was we're going back to work within 3 weeks.Sounds like we've got a LOT of work lined up. I hope so i need more money to buy a new sled.

I got that message with my pay stub about the $25 xtra coming also. IT BETTER HURRY UP! lol

Sounds good. I hear we got the Janesville(curb) contract. Hopefully it keeps us busy for most of the year. Would be nice if we got some machine work also.

Worked many nights on 94. Patching job in the spring and rumblestrips on the job from Jefferson west in the fall. Just talked to the office, they said we are picking up a little work.

Merit Asphalt out of Muskego. I stay at a motel all week during the summer and come home on weekends.(when I aint workn them)
I am really trying to find something in the same line of work around Central Wisconsin so I can be home every night. Two 5 yr old boys and a 17 month old boy tha want their daddy home more!

Heck the perfect job would be to go work at the Operating Engineers school in Coloma. That's 5 minutes from my house!

Times are tough all over. Ive been lucky that the company I work for is still doing pretty well, but I still sometimes worry about what the future holds.
Thats why I show up on time every day, bust my ass and make sure not to complain about ANYTHING. Right now, the last thing you want to do is give your boss ANY reason to want to get rid of you.

I was just saying this a few weeks ago in the thread I started in Gen. 4M about going to Florida and doing Disney and a few other attractions. Now fast forward to last week Friday, the Corperate AXE swung at my job. Cut 80 positions, 60 were I work and another 20 in the plant 17miles away.
I still have a job, but alot of ppl around me don't.

F&F

Yup, thats why I just shake my head when people I work with miss work for no other reason than because they dont feel like working and walk around with an attitude.
I just think to myself, "those are the things that the bosses look at when they look at who should stay and who they can afford to get rid of."
Where I work, attendance and being on-time is very important. Thats why, no matter how tired or hung over I am or how bad the roads are from a snowstorm or whatever, I go to work.
This last Thursday I drank a little too much at the snowmobile club meeting and I was a bit hung over, but I still went to work. I had a pounding headache, but I was still there.
Im hoping thats enough to ensure that I keep my job if things get really slow, but its something I think about sometimes.
This is a terrible thing to say, but I hope for lots of hurricanes and storms this year. I work for a company that makes generators, so storms that knock out power (but dont knock down buildings) is good news for us.

You work for Generac in Eagle ? or Kohler ?

I am a manager at BioLife Plasma Services and I see so many repeat donors come in and say they've lost their jobs. It's starting to hit close to home. Trane company and Ashley Furniture are laying off people like crazy around here, very sad.

Whitewater.

I work for Generac in Whitewater. I test the home standby generators.

Small world, the company I work for built double wall diesel fuel tanks for the larger Generac Commercial units.
F&F

I did a bunch of wiring at the Stevens Point BioLife, last spring, after the original electrical contractor got kicked off the job. I am sure your business is picking up as people need spare cash..............

Small world indeed ! I hauled pallets (for new generators to be shipped out on) to whitewater,eagle,and waukesha back in '06. Things were BOOMING there then,but the lack of storms sure brought things to a screeching halt. I even hauled 3 specialty pallets (very long) to Maquoketa ! Made good money those days.......

Yeah,the good old days......I worked days,and nights for a few weeks. Good to hear they're getting some work lined up. The guy i'm leased to is already talking about a shortage of trucks for the jobs he has lined up.....Hope it's true !!

Good to hear !!

A year and a half ago, we were building 3 models of fuel tanks for Generac in Eagle. We were told the units we were building tanks for supplied back up power to for cellular phone towers.
Each tower had its own back up power source.

Unlimited overtime, 6 and 7 days a week.

I remember seeing some work for Generac at my old employer in the mid to late 90's. Don't remember what we made, or for how long. It was one or two jobs.

Had a union meeting yesterday, we were talking about all the jobs in janesville lost,out of 4800 union memebers there are 95 left and those are leaveing too, were helping bring some of those members up here too oshkosh but even we have a hireing freeze now, my heart goes out too those workers who lost there jobs,sucks balls.......................