How safe is your job?

Many of us thought that 2008 was a rocky year, but there is a lot of evidence pointing to the fact that this year could be even more turbulent, not least because of the number of jobs losses that are expected. Towards the end of last year we were all horrified to see a number of big name companies such as MFI, Woolworths, and Zavvi going into administration because they could no longer cope financially, and thousands of people lost their jobs because of this.

This year started with a fresh round of job loss announcements with banks such as Barclays, and other companies such as Jaguar Land Rover, announcing further job losses. In fact, many officials are now concerned about the number of jobs that could be lost over the course of this year. Lat year it was thought that the job losses would be mainly in the financial sector as a result of the global credit crunch, and in the estate agency sector due to slow property sales. However, it seems that job losses are occurring in many different sectors, such as retail, manufacturing, services, legal, and many others.

In fact, no matter how secure you may think your job is there is not guarantee in the current climate, and industry officials have predicted that in the first quarter of this year alone there could be around 300,000 job losses, equating to 100,000 job losses per month. Furthermore, officials are expecting another 300,000 job losses before the end of the year, and the situation could be even worse than expected.

There is also concern that the job losses that do occur will affect the morale of those that do still have a job, and one official said: ‘Managers will be attempting to perform the organisational equivalent of emergency triage. Staff will be traumatised by news of colleagues losing jobs, anxious that they might be next, or simply feeling hard done by because their pay and perks are being scaled back.’

Another official said that it was difficult to know what to expect because of the scale of the economic downturn, stating: ‘This current recession threatens to be catastrophic, as it is different in nature to any other recession ever to hit the UK. We are helplessly buffeted by the economic winds of a global recession.’

One tip for consumers in the current climate with regards to employment is that now is probably a bad idea to change jobs, as some companies operate on a last in first out basis, so if there are job losses and you have only just joined the company you could be amongst the first to go. Instead, if you are in a fairly secure job that you have been in for a while, it is advisable to stay put for the moment.

Another thing to consider is whether you should take out income insurance to ensure that you are still bringing in money if you do lose your job. The cost of this can vary so make sure that you compare providers, and also make sure that you protect an adequate level of income so that you can still cover your essential payments.

Tags: global credit crunch, job losses, property sales, official, unemployment