More Americans Worry About Finding Jobs

Sept. 3 -- Normally on Labor Day people are not thinking about the job market.

But this year, far more Americans than last year are looking for work. Economic growth is the slowest its been in a decade. How worried should we be about our job security?

23-year-old Marni Deutsch wasn’t too concerned, especially since she landed a plum job in corporate communications almost immediately after graduating from college last year.

But almost as quickly — just 11 months later — she’s getting her resume ready again because she’s been laid off.

Cuts Across the Board

Layoffs have been prominently in the headlines with nearly 1 million Americans getting a pink slip so far this year, a third more than in 2000.

And while the bad news keeps coming from high-tech powerhouses, other sectors have also been hit hard by downsizing, such as a family-run tool company in South Elgin, Il., which had to lay off employees for the first time in its 50 years in business.

Those who survived are nervous like Fred Missele, a father of four. “I think everyone’s a little concerned about their job. This is the worst I’ve ever seen it in the 36 years I’ve been here.”

Managers are not immune to the effects of the slowing economy either. A management placement firm in Northern Virginia is swamped with new and highly qualified clients out of work like Rick Boden, Kevin McCarthy, and Cindy Preston, all successful executives who told us they aren’t used to being in this position.

Boden took a chance as chief financial officer of an Internet company, but now he’s out of a job. “At first — I said, oh man, what am I going to do now?” McCarthy, laid off for the first time in his career, tried not to dwell on his misfortune. “I let my wife do that,” he says.

Preston opted to take her company’s buy-out offer, thinking it would be a good time to try something new. But, she says, “it’s been a little more difficult than I thought it would be to change industries.”