Factors That Will Affect Your Career

1. The Housing Crisis
You can't pick up a newspaper these days without seeing a headline about the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the downturn in real estate -- and that's with good reason.
"The ongoing housing crisis affects not just subprime lenders, but banks, realtors, home retailers, construction and renovation contractors, building materials companies, and others," Challenger says. And, unlike problems in the automotive industry, for example, "This crisis is so geographically dispersed, so very far-reaching. Every region of the country is going to face difficulties."
Even if you don't work in one of the aforementioned fields, the housing crisis will still impact consumer spending. Challenger says, "Because of the fact that consumers can no longer use their homes as piggy banks, they're losing the ability to spend. And consumer spending constitutes two-thirds of our economic growth."