HR Survey Shows Hiring Freezes, Layoffs & Pay Cuts Ahead

If economic conditions don’t improve soon, a new survey says about three-quarters of human resources (HR) executives expect budget cuts across their entire organizations, reported Workforce Management. Fifty-five percent of the HR professionals said they will put a freeze on hiring efforts and 40% said they will use layoffs as a cost cutting measure.

Roughly half of the respondents indicated that wage freezes and bonus cuts were other likely responses to the downturn. Job losses have already begun to mount, with employers slashing more than 240,000 positions last month, according to the latest payroll numbers from the Department of Labor. The unemployment rate spiked to 6.5% in October, its highest level since March 1994. That percentage is expected to go much higher. ❖