myBLOG-Online

Doom & Gloom?

Writen by on Dec, 12 2008, 19:41 ♦ Category: Archived ♦ No Responses

There is likely to be another 30,000 unemployed throughout the UK in the coming months as Woolworths liquidates it’s assets. MFI is also in administration and my bank, Santander (Abbey), who also own Bradford and Bingley and Alliance and Leicesterare cutting 1,900 jobs over the coming months. Woolworths is a huge name within the UK, a name that has been around for almost 100 years, it seems that recession has no respect for big names or history. The company employs more than 25,000 people across their 815 stores across the UK. Most, if not all of those jobs are expected to go after the administrators failed to sell the company as a going concern. MFI, another well know UK brand employ more than 1,000 people in its 111 stores nationwide. Meanwhile here in the US, the senate has refused to bail out ailing US car manufacturers, Chrysler, General Motors and Ford who have suffered from a massive downturn in sales in the past year. So it looks like there will be thousands of redundancies in the next few months. The major aircraft companies here in Wichita, including Cessna and Boeing are all laying off right now with thousands more jobs to go in the coming months, so things aren’t looking good on either side of the Atlantic! I hope that I can find work here when I emigrate to the US next year!

As I touched on a few days ago, Formula 1 isn’t immune to the current financial downturn. Teams have agreed a raft of new measures to cut costs. Max Mosley’s plan to introduce a standard engine and gearbox into F1 was shot down in flames as (predictably) Ferrari threatened to quit the sport if that measure was introduced. But engines will now have to last even longer with each driver only having 8 engines at their disposal for the whole season. There will also be a ban on testing during the season with the exception of practice sessions. Also the cost of customer engines would be reduced by 50% to make it more cost effective for independent teams. Some bad ideas have come out as well; no refueling from 2010, and race distances could be shortened (pending market research). F1 teams are to reduce their workforces to make further savings meaning more unemployed in the UK as many of the teams are based in the UK!

Things aren’t doom & gloom for me, I’m still very happy with life. It seems that I will be making my move to the US permanently sooner than I thought due to annoying (and expensive) bureaucracy. I will be going home to the UK for 4 weeks to wrap things up and hopefully do a little work as I have no money whatsoever right now. When I return to the US, myself and Erin plan to get married so my tourist visa will become void so I can stay, then we need to apply for permanent resident status and a work permit to allow me to work. The work permit should come through within 12 weeks all being well!  The permanent resident status application could take considerably longer, 26 or more weeks, but I can stay in the US as Erin’s husband for two years before requiring permanent resident status. The killer is the cost, it’s going to cost more than $1400 to make these applications and that is no guarantee of success. We’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed, although we have no reason to believe that our petition would be denied!

Have Something To Say About This Post? Please Comment Below!