One quarter of Canadians fear layoffs

[Francis2004]

Do you fear that you will be next in layoffs at your job?

If not how will these all affect you and your company? Each layoff means one more person if not family that cannot afford to buy new products. They may even have to declare bankruptcy and hurt the Canadian economy harder as they will have sink the banks and credit card companies while lowering their disposable income. By that I mean many of them will not be able to get proper housing, cars and jobs because of the bad debt the economy forced on usually financially stable people..

From managers to front-line workers, a quarter of Canadians fret they'll lose their jobs as the recession deepens, a survey showed Monday.

About 24 per cent of Canadian employees have the job jitters, with workers in the private sector especially concerned, according to Ipsos Reid's better workplace syndicated study, based on an online poll of 1,100 employees last month.

The angst comes as the economy continues to shed jobs. Canadian employers cut 129,000 jobs last month, the sharpest monthly plunge on record, Statistics Canada said Friday. Economists expect the jobless rate, now at a four-year high of 7.2 per cent, to climb further this year.

“We're seeing concerns throughout all levels of the organizational structure,” said JB Aloy, employee researcher at Ipsos. “From managers, to technical specialists, to workers on the floor, there is a great concern across all career streams about what this crisis means for their job.”

When asked how worried people are that they may lose their job or be laid off this year because of economic woes, a quarter of respondents said they were very or somewhat concerned.

Public-sector workers were less concerned about job security. Just 14 per cent are worried their jobs are in jeopardy, compared with 27 per cent in the private sector. The manufacturing sector is the most anxious, with 40 per cent of employees concerned about job cutbacks and losses, the study said.

CTV.ca | CTV News, Shows and Sports - Canadian Television

 

[lone wolf]

Not me ... and in a dark sort of way I am fortunate to have been disabled by that accident. Inco has laid off and closed some operations. Fnx has cut its workforce in half. Now, Falconbridge (Xtrada) is all but gone from Sudbury ... and all three were booming not six months ago....
Press room: news | Xstrata plc

 

[unclepercy]

Americans are very worried since 3.6 million people have been laid off during the last year. Unfortunately, my daughter got laid off last Thursday. She is leaning on us for help, but her husband has a pretty good job. I know 3 other families who are living off savings or credit cards.

 

[VanIsle]

Anyone who didn't see this coming at least a couple of months ago needs to give their head a shake. My husband and myself are in jobs that will probably never need to lay us off. I'm in a union job so the store would have to slow down to a crawl before I get laid off. My husband works for a security company and the place he helps keep secure is never going to go away. His company works for the city. He's retired from his main career so he has pensions. I'm not a retired person but if I lost my job - we would be fine. Groceries are still going up. Buy some things in case lot sales - canned goods that will last for awhile. Soap, TP, shampoo, toothpaste (not cases of these things but buy what you can so that you have maybe a 6 months supply if you think your job is in jeopardy. Buy some healthy food with protein in it. Even peanut butter - get what you can comfortably store so that if you are without a job, that part is not holding you down in regard to job searching and to taking a job that pays way less than you are used to. People never remember that to get a job, you have to have a job. Sounds odd but for some reason, employers seem to feel you are much more worthy of hiring as long as someone else took the chance on you first. So if you lose your job, take what you can and then keep looking. It will keep the creditors from nipping at your heels.

 

[VanIsle]

From the Vancouver paper: DANGER SIGNALS FOR JOB LAYOFFS
Flags:
1. Cost cutting 2. Your work-load is lighter than usual or projects are being reassigned to others in your dept. 3. Your position or dept. isn't viewed as a revenue generator. 4. You are no longer included in meetings you used to participate in. 5. Your manager is showing increased interest in the status of your projects and the procedures to complete them.
I would say #5 is the main one to watch out for - they are taking mental notes on how it's done so they know what to do when they say good-bye to you.

 

[Scott Free]

An interesting video that has relevance to Canada and this thread: The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class

 

[SirJosephPorter]

Sir Francis, only 24% Canadians are worried about their job? If that is the case, I would say Canadians are remarkably upbeat in these hard economic times. 76 % of Canadians are confident that they will not lose their jobs, that is quite a healthy number.

Do you know what are the numbers in USA? They are probably lot higher than 24%.