The Florida Economy from Where I Sit

My Situation:

I work for a national consultant engineering firm. Over the past few years the firm has won some very large projects, many in excess of $5,000,000 per year in fees. I am working on one such project as a Project Manager for about 56 specific projects. I know that sounds like a lot but many of them are pretty small.

The Impacts of the Economy:

Over the past few months the client has learned that their revenue to pay for the program our firm is managing has declined significantly due to lower property, sales and gas taxes. They were planning to purchase bonds to build about $500M in new projects. Earlier this year they learned that their bond rating was lowered, increasing their interest rates, lowering the amount they can borrow. Now the county is considering a 25% reduction in county staff. They are also considering a major reduction to the program we are managing. So in addition to 25% staffing layoffs, the county may be terminating or scaling back our contract.

A neighboring County is considering similar program and staffing cuts.

The Grace of Our God:

While all this is happening, the client is also considering increasing the program budget and accelerating the projects I am managing. And the client has expressed desire to keep me working on the program even if the existing contract is terminated or cut back. All around me people are worried about their jobs. We had an emergency staff meeting a couple weeks ago and everyone was afraid there would an announcement about more staffing cuts. A similar meeting was held in February where 2 people from my office were let go. This meeting was about our color copying bill – it was too high! I, on the other hand, am wondering whether I will be able to keep up with the work I have and that appears to be coming my way.