JOB SECURITY

Vol. 8, No. 2
April, 1999



	The New Job Insecurity Amid the general euphoria about our robust economy and the gratifyingly low rate of unemployment, little, if any, attention has been paid to a not-so-happy development: There were 677,795 layoffs announced by companies during 1998, representing the largest single-year total of proposed job cuts in the past decade, according to figures by the nation's top job placement firm, Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The 1998 total was 56 percent greater than the figures for 1997, when employers reported on plans to eliminate 434,350 jobs. If these massive layoffs are occurring in the best of times, what will happen to workers when the economy turns sour? How can they plan for their families' future when they can't know how long their job will last or what they will do if it is terminated? The concept of job security, once the great achievement of the labor movement that built and maintained a stable middle class, has been badly frayed. It is now very difficult for unions to obtain a no-layoff clause, even for the life of a contract, without offering the employer concessions or holding back on justified demands for increased wages and benefits. The epidemic of corporate downsizing has left working people, whether in private industry or the public sector, haunted by the fear that someday soon they'll be laid off, even though they never dreamed it could happen to them. What If It Happens to You? And what if you're unlucky and it does actually happen to you? You'd find out that even in a booming economy, you'd have a hard time landing a job with your former salary and benefits and a workplace environment in which you fit in comfortably. So, after weeks and maybe months of job-hunting, you'd settle for one that pays less and where you're treated as a newcomer who has to prove himself. Or maybe you'll go back to school to acquire new career skills. That won't be easy, especially if you're 40 or older. No matter what you can learn by spending a year or two in school, you'll still be looked upon as a novice who has to compete with younger workers willing to accept less pay. What will all this depressing experience do to your self-esteem? This is the predicament that hundreds of thousands of Americans are facing now and will face in the years ahead. Big Business certainly won't let up in its drive to cut labor costs through mass firings. All of this is something to ponder the next time you hear a politician bragging about the economy and predicting a rosy future.

The New Job Insecurity

Amid the general euphoria about our robust economy and the gratifyingly low rate of unemployment, little, if any, attention has been paid to a not-so-happy development: There were 677,795 layoffs announced by companies during 1998, representing the largest single-year total of proposed job cuts in the past decade, according to figures by the nation's top job placement firm, Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The 1998 total was 56 percent greater than the figures for 1997, when employers reported on plans to eliminate 434,350 jobs.

If these massive layoffs are occurring in the best of times, what will happen to workers when the economy turns sour? How can they plan for their families' future when they can't know how long their job will last or what they will do if it is terminated?

The concept of job security, once the great achievement of the labor movement that built and maintained a stable middle class, has been badly frayed. It is now very difficult for unions to obtain a no-layoff clause, even for the life of a contract, without offering the employer concessions or holding back on justified demands for increased wages and benefits.

The epidemic of corporate downsizing has left working people, whether in private industry or the public sector, haunted by the fear that someday soon they'll be laid off, even though they never dreamed it could happen to them.

What If It Happens to You?
And what if you're unlucky and it does actually happen to you? You'd find out that even in a booming economy, you'd have a hard time landing a job with your former salary and benefits and a workplace environment in which you fit in comfortably. So, after weeks and maybe months of job-hunting, you'd settle for one that pays less and where you're treated as a newcomer who has to prove himself.

Or maybe you'll go back to school to acquire new career skills. That won't be easy, especially if you're 40 or older. No matter what you can learn by spending a year or two in school, you'll still be looked upon as a novice who has to compete with younger workers willing to accept less pay. What will all this depressing experience do to your self-esteem?

This is the predicament that hundreds of thousands of Americans are facing now and will face in the years ahead. Big Business certainly won't let up in its drive to cut labor costs through mass firings.

All of this is something to ponder the next time you hear a politician bragging about the economy and predicting a rosy future.

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