Rental House Layoffs - what does it mean?

[Anonymous]

I just heard that [a huge Toronto rental house] has laid off a bunch of staff for the next few months.

Does this mean they expect production to grind to a halt? What have you folks heard about the coming weeks and months?

Hmmmm....                    

[Anonymous]

There seems to be a little bit of hesitation to award jobs right now. Something to do with a possible conflict in the middle east...
But there are lots of boards flying around, and the jobs will flow if W makes up his mind.
However if the dollar climbs any higher...?                    

[Anonymous]

I heard a rumour that the layoffs are due more to the rental co's recent "orgy of acquisition" than to a slowdown in production. They need to save money for a while.                    

[Anonymous]

Yes, I heard the same. It's because other parts of the country have slowed down, not so much TO.

Vinit Borrison                    

[Anonymous]

Everybody is guessing again what will happen this year. I guess when it is slow we have nothing better to do but gossip about everything else. Maybe we should call it the silly season(Jan-April) becase it happens every year !                    

[brad]

I heard from a reliable source that the reason for the lay offs at one of the big rental houses was because they spent large amounts of money purchasing HD camera packages in order to embrace the new technology standard. Unfortunately a lot of productions just aren't fully equipped to work with HD so it's been sitting on the shelves.  Hence the layoffs....

that's just what I heard though