Attending the GSA Suppliers Expo and Conference earlier this month was a sobering experience. During a 9 ½-hour stint in my company’s booth, I saw firsthand how the sour economy has affected the networking that goes on at industry trade shows.
As expected, lots of people, including many ex-colleagues and acquaintances, stopped by to see how I and my company were doing and to trade stories about what has happened since the last time we had a chance to chat. This is all well and good; unfortunately, there were also several other visitors, some who I knew and a few I did not know, who stopped by to inquire about work opportunities. This is the reality of a trade show in a today’s severely down economy with many people either unemployed or underemployed.
I am sure all of us know several people in the semiconductor industry looking for work. A couple of fellows I know have been unemployed for over a year; one for 18 months. Having the analysts tell us that the industry is starting to rebound doesn’t help these people – they are out of work and have bills to pay.
The really unfortunate part of all this is that many of the jobs that have been eliminated are not coming back. As past downsizing periods have shown us, companies “thin the herd” of employees to accommodate a business downturn and then, when business picks up, they increase the workload of current employees and only partially refill the employee pool to prior levels at comparable business loads.
This is the new business climate, it is here to stay and we all have to live with it.
October 18th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
I agree with your assessment that companies “thin the herd” and don’t re-hire at pre-downturn levels unless their business grows. We need to see new companies and new products that address emerging needs if we want to reverse the contraction and start growing the pie again.
Sanjay Srivastava, the CEO of Denali, has blogged about this same topic, see “In Search of Recovery” at http://sanjay7212.wordpress.com/2009/09/17/hello-world/
October 19th, 2009 at 11:34 am
While it is painful to see colleagues, friends and relatives out of work, this “thinning” often gives companies a chance to rebuild from inside and while this may not lead to an immedite increase in hiring, if they are smart, they will grow the business quickly and then the jobs will follow. Additionally, the thinning may give remaining employees a chance to recreate their jobs leading to new challenges and an opportunity to learn new skills.
I agree with Sanjay–this downturn will eventually mean an upturn in new products and the birth of new companies.
October 25th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Sean (and Sanjay) are absolutely correct in their assessment.
I think Susan’s comment, while well intentioned, is probably unrealistic: the larger companies will only hire a smaller number of people when the recovery happens. I believe Sean’s (and Sanjay’s) assessment is that it will be newer, smaller companies that will be driving the new hiring – when it comes.