A graphic view of how bad things are getting

Scrolling stock quotes at the bottom of a TV screen and real time market quoting software and web sites are familiar tools, but as we’ve heard many times – the market is not the “real” economy. Fortunately, there are a number of web sites around to help you watch as the economy sheds jobs. For example: the TechCrunch Layoff Tracker is updated daily and currently shows 224,169 employees laid off in the technology sector since the end of August.

What’s really interesting about these statistics is not the number of people being laid off – but the financial and economic aspects of the layoffs. You see, many of the companies on this tracker list aren’t actually losing money. In fact, some of them are reporting steady or even increased income.

So why are they laying people off?

There are a number of possible reasons:

• Most of them have had large drops in stock price – meaning that any stock options people are holding have become worthless for now. Dropping profits will only serve to make this worse, and cutting head count is a quick short-term way to increase profitability.
• Some of them expect this year to be awful – cutting expenses now will help their cash last longer if income drops.
• Every company tends to hire some people who aren’t really all that good – the economy provides a great excuse to unload the less competent (or dump the older and higher paid employees – often by providing a special incentive package to get them to quit).
• Management can’t figure out a way to put these people to work in a way that is profitable.

The irony of all this is that by laying these people off, the economy gets worse – as there are that many fewer people with incomes sufficient to purchase their products.

The final irony (dare we say hypocrisy) is that these very companies are often the ones that in good times emphasize how their employees are their most valuable resource.

Consider, if you will, the recent report that Microsoft is laying off 5000 people. Between these layoffs and additional cost savings (cutting merit increases, travel and other expenses), Microsoft expects to save $1.5 billion. That’s a lot of money. On the other hand, at year end Microsoft had over $20 billion in cash. One can’t help but wonder what were the reasons that went into their decision to go with layoffs at this time.

One of these consoles is a power miser

Energy consumption is probably not the first thing you consider when shopping for a game console. In fact, it’s probably far down the list. But energy use translates into cost, and you’d be surprised how much a game console can add to your household budget.

All three of the main consoles: the Nintendo Wii, Playstation III and Xbox 360 draw power even when turned off. The power use rises dramatically once you turn them on.

The Nintendo Wii easily wins the award for greenest console. Though it uses 1.9 watts while off, that increases to 16.4 watts once you start playing. It is followed by the Xbox 360 whose latest version draws 3.1 watts off and 118.8 while on. The power guzzler of the group is the Playstation III that, while drawing a miserly 1.1 watts while off, drinks up 150.1 watts while on.

That’s for the latest versions of the products. If you have older versions, you’re using more power: 172 watts for the original Xbox 360 and a whopping 188.6 watts for an original PS3.

So how does a game console impact your budget?

Here’s a way to estimate it. Look on your most recent power bill and find the cost per Kwh. It will typically run in the 10 cents to 20 cents range. If your electric company has different costs based on usage, choose the highest number.

If your game console is on for an average of four hours a day, multiply the power cost by the following:

0.16 for an Xbox 360, 0.03 for a Wii and 0.19 for a PS3

If your game console is on for an average of four hours a day, multiply the power cost by the following:

0.3 for an Xbox 360, 0.05 for a Wii and 0.37 for a PS3

And if it runs 24 hours a day (likely if the kids forget to turn it off), multiply the power cost by the following:

0.85 for an Xbox 360, 0.11 for a Wii and 1.08 for a PS3

The resulting number is your approximate monthly cost to power your video game console.

Here in California, power isn’t cheap – and with the various computers and gadgets around here, it’s no surprise my power cost hits 23 cents/kWh. Forgetting to turn off the Wii isn’t the end of the world at $2.71/month. But I’m sure going to remember to turn off the PS3 – an extra $25/month on my power bill is not going to go unnoticed.