The survey of 2,315 respondents showed that “More than half (55 percent) of these employees said their company made changes or reduced compensation in the past six months, up from 50 percent in the fourth quarter, and 17 percent reported their company restructured their job or made their position redundant, up from 10 percent last quarter.”
Anxiety about job security caused about three-quarters of respondents to say that they would take a pay cut to keep working in their current positions.The poll shows the extent to which companies have workers by their throats. Productivity in the U.S. rose by 7.9% in the fourth quarter of last year, a sign that bosses are willing to pressure their work forces for longer hours and probably harder ones. Workers have nearly no leverage to get improved salaries. Recent unemployment numbers for March showed that 8 percent of the work force is comprised of people who would like full-time jobs but have only part-time one.
There continues to be a ripple of despair that moves among the workers at firms where management can reasonably hint that it has not cut the last job possible and that one more “restructuring” may be on the way. Personal income in the US will not rebound under these circumstances which means that consumer spending will remain historically low.
People who live in deep fear of losing their jobs are saving what they can and not spending a dime
Douglas A. McIntyre
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