Feeling Anxious About Your Job Security? You're Not The Only One

For the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic, hiring freezes and layoffs have started - and they've been coming thick and fast.

Market-leaders such as Amazon, Cisco, Goldman Sachs, Google and Meta have been a few of the big names who have been cutting staff numbers substantially. Of course, it's not uncommon that during a period of economic uncertainty that companies look at streamlining their business activity, but what is unsettling is both the frequency and volume of these high-profile job cuts.

As you can see from the below, from just a selection of 5 different corporations there has been 50,000 projected job cuts. From looking at various articles and reports, recruitment divisions seem like the worst effected department so far. This is usually one of the first signs of hiring freezes globally where businesses stop the incomings, before they look elsewhere at other departments such as administration, marketing and tech teams.

This onslaught of layoffs has led to a substantial drop in employee confidence with over 30% of professionals now being apprehensive about their job security.

If you are feeling anxious in the workplace, then the below pointers may be helpful to you:

Stay calm, be positive and work hard - The last thing you want is for your Senior Management team to see panicking, as this ultimately leads to you making mistakes in the workplace. You want to give the best showing of yourself as possible, so if a decision is to be made then you make their life as difficult as possible should they have to pull the trigger.

Sometimes corporate change and restructures can lead to greater opportunities - In a changing technological world, corporate restructures are going to become more commonplace. This doesn't mean that everyone loses their jobs and they completely wipe-out the previous workforce, sometimes it can mean that they actually re-evaluate what everyone truly brings to the business. Who knows, previously you may have been unappreciated and under-utilised?

Look for alternative opportunities outside of working hours - If the situation is looking pretty dire, then it's time to get your ducks in a row and start getting your name out there to other employers. You don't want to take your foot off the gas at work, as you'll be setting a bad picture of what you can still bring to the business, but when possible outside of work you should look at job-boards, social media and on company websites for live opportunities.

Are there any positives to take from the current market?

What is rather strange is that despite all the headlines and reports, it's not all doom and gloom on the recruitment side of things. Both the US and UK unemployment rate is only 3.7%, which are close to historic lows for both countries. To put this into context, in the 80's the UK's unemployment rate hit a rather staggering 12%.

Forecasts do suggest that this will rise over the next few years, but things seem to be holding steady so far - and in fact - there are still labour shortages across many key industries. This contradicts the standard economic theory which suggests that when a recession hits -immediately unemployment shoots up.

Are you feeling anxious about your working situation at the moment? If so then please do share your thoughts and comment below, it'll be great to hear from you.