Like I said, I post data “points” – not saying a trend, just data points.
I’ll also admit that my perspective is not so rosy. Not having a good time this week.
The company I work at just informed us that our Q1 commissions will be $0. Not just mine but all the other sales support like myself. The sales reps I work with are only at 30-40% of their first half goals. I keep talking to my customer base – large companies with budgets in the 100s of millions. They’ve all been putting their buys on hold. They are also worried about their jobs, budgets and their companies.
Its a rippling effect – this non-spending of $100’s of millions of dollars throughout the country – that we are seeing.
When companies stop paying commissions you know what’s around the corner – layoffs. And layoffs in a company that has over 300K employees ripples throughout the local economies.
My $40K in commissions that I enjoyed last year – on top of a upper income salary – will not make it into my local economy – Temecula.
My neighbor also works for a hi-tech company, similar size, similar revenue, similar income and he is also worried about layoffs.
That is why I dont think the unemployment picture and thus the housing situation is going to improve anytime soon. Wait until the big dominoes I am seeing begin to fall.
But again, these are only the data points I look at.
