Recession Facts

What does a recessionary economy mean for the job market?

The headlines are clear: we have the highest initial jobless claims since September 2001 coupled with a continuing claims level not seen since 1983. This means people are not only losing jobs, but more importantly having a hard time finding new ones.

How are companies adapting to this economy?

Layoffs: Whether it’s called “corporate restructuring” or “re-engineering,” many companies are pursing layoffs as their first step. "For most employers there's little cushion, because they already had very few employees for the work they were doing," explains Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute.

"So, as the economy shrinks, we're going to see large-scale cutbacks -- not temporary lay-offs, but people permanently losing their jobs." Wide scale job losses produces two major side effects: “highly trained workers will be laid-off and forced to accept jobs that require far less skill, or employ them for far fewer hours.”

Stricter Hiring Policies: Hiring practices are becoming increasingly stringent. In a 2004 survey of HR professionals, 61% said they "often" or "sometimes" find résumé inaccuracies when vetting prospective hires, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.

Executive candidates most frequently lie about reasons for leaving a previous post, results and accomplishments, and past job responsibilities.

A recent Wall Street Journal article warns that “the prevalence of résumé fraud may increase as the economy worsens.” As a result, hiring managers will increasingly be “on guard” to deal with these errors.