We were a major electrical contractor until this recession hit with offices in 23 metropolitan areas in 17 states, today 10 offices in 7 states. Our residential division has gone from 2000+ employees 2 years ago to less than 100 today. The division I manage (plus I do our IT), commercial construction had 200+ employees 2 years ago is now down to 10 plus me.
My division was going strong until last August. At that point it fell off rapidly. We use to have jobs scheduled out for the next 3 or 4 months, today I have about 2 or 3 weeks worth of work left on current jobs and nothing coming up. What little work is being released for bidding is attracting bids from 30 or 40 companies, in normal times one would see 5 or 6 bidders competing for the work.
The residential division of the company will probably survive, just. But My division is going to be shutdown by the end of March, mid-April at the latest.
The biggest problem for me is there is no where to go were there is any work! Plus I'm too old to go back out into the field to work. And as management, there is a non-compete agreement which bars me from working in the electrical field in any area in which the company has offices for a period of 5 years.
