So the Economic Crisis is Over?

Politicians and the media seem happy to tell us that the economic crisis is over, but I have my doubts. At least here in southern Sweden, it seems to be in full swing. Just a few days ago a large pharmaceutical company announced that it was shutting down its facilities in Lund. 900 people would be out of work. Other large telecom companies have been announcing round after round of lay-offs. My husband’s a consultant at one of these companies.

While we’ve seen it coming for months, it still shook us a bit yesterday when my husband found out that his position had been eliminated. They didn’t say if he would be reassigned again, and the odds of that are slim. They also didn’t say when this would go into effect, which means he has at least a month left there.

Before Christmas, the company announced that several hundred positions would be eliminated. Last week, they said they’d be announcing which positions this week. Then on Monday, they said they’d have to wait at least another week because the union wasn’t ready to deal with all the phone calls. I guess they decided to tell some people anyhow. Don’t people understand that uncertainty is not good for productivity? For the past year, the product pipeline has been clogged by indecisiveness caused by people not knowing which projects would survive the next round of cuts.

So if the economic crisis is over, why does it feel like it's just getting warmed up?