February 18th, 2009 by Reed Allmand 
The federal government’s deadline for the automakers has come and gone with GM announcing an additional 47,000 job losses. The job losses will include 10,000 salaried workers and 37,000 blue-collar positions which is around 19 percent of its 244,500 employee workforce, according to an article in the Star-Telegram. A total of 21,000 of those job losses will be in the United States. GM also announced that it will close five more U.S. factories. Both automakers who are facing bankruptcy unveiled plans that will reduce the number of their U.S. workers from 92,000 to 72,000 by 2012. They also requested over $14 billion additional funds to help them stay afloat as sales continue to stagnate.
Of course we suspected that the automakers were going to announce more job losses and request more money. Job lossesmount in any economic downturn. But what’s different about this downturn is that workers are not prepared for job losses. Most workers facing job losses have mortgages, credit card debts, lots of bills and little savings. This makes those workers facing job losses vulnerable at a time when they don’t have much wiggle room or much opportunity to find a job that pays comparable wages. With little or no income these workers will struggle to pay the mortgage and other basics causing a domino effect in their financial lives. Their loss of income will make them vulnerable to foreclosure and other financial disasters. If you’re a worker facing a job loss, don’t delay in taking an honest look at your financial situation. If you discover that you do not have enough money/income to maintain your mortgage, credit cards and other debts contact a professional bankruptcy attorney today.
About Reed Allmand
Allmand's vision is rooted in his own financially precarious childhood in Abilene "My father always had difficulty holding a job and supporting our family, so after my parents divorced when I was 12, my sister and I got jobs to help make ends meet," he recalls. "I remember what it felt like as a child to worry that our car would be repossessed or home foreclosed on."
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