PREDICTIONS of a recession seem pointless. Judging by the the numbers of workers who are being made redundant locally, the depression is already with us.

Manufacturing and retail industries have been shedding jobs and now Bolton College is planning to slash staff costs by at least one third.

It is a sad sign of the times and few firms seem to be escaping intact. We can only hope that the situation will start to improve for everyone in 1999.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.