SmallBusinessNewz

It may be true that no man is an island, but the economy's problems are forcing some small business owners to become peninsulas.  Or, to speak more plainly: a great many companies are laying off employees.

Perhaps we can start by looking at things on a sort of macro scale.  The UK's Forum of Private Business reported in a release, "[T]he number of people claiming unemployment benefit in August increased at the fastest rate for 16 years, reaching 904,900.  The ONS recorded a total of 1.72 million people out of work - an increase of 81,000 from the previous quarter."

What's more, between May and July, the number of available jobs in the UK shrunk from 670,100 to 613,200 (representing a loss of 56,900 positions).

Then, on the other side of the pond and in the past month or so, we've heard about imminent cuts at Yahoo and witnessed the announcement of a huge staff reduction at eBay.  To veer towards rumors, the mighty Microsoft may have put a hiring freeze in place.  And through either ad revenue or the straightforward sale of products, all of these corporations can be of some help to small businesses.

The situation isn't likely to improve soon since the financial crisis seems to be continuing.  As banks fold or face tougher circumstances, they'll be less willing to lend money to businesses and individuals, and as the Dow crashes, everything from private savings and retirement accounts will suffer.

Finally, to really drill down to some small business-specific info, the FPB statement continued, "The FPB's legal advice line experienced a 68% increase in calls on employment in September.  Redundancy is the main issue for FPB members, with 12% of total calls relating to redundancy situations."

This is sure to create some hard decisions within a lot of homes and companies.  For whatever it's worth, "The FPB is advising its members to seek advice on matters of employment early."

Still, as a sort of silver lining (we have to try to find a bright side to this mess), if any companies happen to have some extra cash money around, now looks to be an excellent time to pick up some employees.  Since the prospect of joblessness is so grim, you might be able to hire good people at a slight discount and still win their loyalty.

The recession has to end sometime, after all, and businesses will want to position themselves to recover well.