Yes you can see the unemployment! People that don't see the unemployment are just plain lying. There is nobody on the roads in the morning like there used to be. Neighbor across the street lost his job and had to move, neighbor next door lost his job and is still looking, neighbor down the street was layed off for about 6 months and is now back to work temporarily. I work in the construction/manufacturing industry and we have had 3 downsizing episodes in the last 2 years. We had about 80 employees 2 years ago and we are at about 35 now. A lot of our competition is working shorter weeks or doing one week on and one week off splitting their employees into two groups. A co-workers wife lost her job about a month ago. A couple of days ago another co-workers wife lost her job at a school because of the reduced funds from the state to the schools. The state is upside down in its state. :eek: I told everyone at work a year ago that this was no recession, and that they had better get prepared for what could be a long drawn out depression. Nobody thinks that could happen anymore. Who knows for sure. Anything can happen, especially when you don't think that it can happen again. Most guys at work in the sales dept. and most realtors I talk to seam to thing the turn is just around the corner, but guess what, If you don't have a job, you can't buy a house. If you don't have a job, how can you pay for your existing house, or your taxes on your house, or the ins. on your house. If you think that you might get less hours in the future or you might not have a job in the future, you are not going to buy a new house or a new car. You are probably going to drive that car for a couple hundred thousand miles, I know we are. This self feeding situation could last for years, and year, and years, etc.