MacroScope

The global recession may be showing signs of abating, but that hasn’t stopped the worldwide hand-wringing over job security. People across the globe are more worried now than they were six months ago about losing their job, and plenty more know someone who is no longer employed, according to a poll.

In the Ipsos/Reuters survey of 23,000 people in 23 countries, 53 percent named jobs and unemployment as their top concern — a 12-point increase in the past six months.  Nearly three-quarters said they know someone who has lost a job.

What worries are foremost on your mind?

Europe’s leaders can no longer rely on the argument that German resilience will cushion the blow to the continent from the worst global recession in just about anyone’s living memory.

Germany’s economy, Europe’s largest, is now officially confirmed as the basket case of Europe, thanks to a plunge in demand for high-tech goods, stagnant domestic demand, and a strong currency.

Having shrunk by 2.1 percent in the fourth quarter alone compared with 1.5 percent for the 16-member euro area, Germany will hold for a brief period over the weekend the dubious title of the fastest contracting economy in the developed world.

It takes a delicate touch to make job cuts sound more palatable. As U.S. companies reduce payrolls by the thousands, the press releases seem to be getting more and more creative.

Check out today’s announcement from The Reader’s Digest Association, which is eliminating 8 percent of its global workforce and suspending matching contributions to employees’ 401(k) retirement accounts. Somehow it stings a bit less when you tell employees that it’s all part of a ”Recession Plan” right?

“We have announced a comprehensive ‘Recession Plan’, which is our internal roadmap for dealing with the extraordinary effects of this recession on consumer spending,” Mary Berner, president and CEO, said in a statement.

George Alogoskoufis is a hardly a household name outside Greece and EU financial circles. But the newly sacked Greek finance minister could yet become a poster child for politicans struggling to fight off economic decline and banking industry collapse. His demise was in large part due to a public perception that he was helping out the banks but ignoring rising joblessness.

Greece, of course, is a special case at the moment, still recovering from riots over the police shooting of a teenager. But finance ministers, central bankers and other responsibles are probably not immune from Alogoskoufis Syndrome. Balancing the need to bail out the finance industry with rising economic misery among everyday people is not easy. Fat cats are not exactly in favour at the moment.

This could, indeed, come to a head later in the year. Investment cycles tend to recover before economic ones. So what happens when Wall Street, the City and the like start bringing in the money again just as unemployment lines start getting even longer?

    Are you an out-of-work banker looking for a new job with
some stability? Considered the drugs industry?

    Daniel Vasella, chief executive of Swiss pharmaceuticals
company Novartis, reckons his sector is a pretty good place
to work when compared to "mercenary" banking.

    "We are not in a banking industry, where they fire a
thousand investment bankers and then a year after they hire
a thousand investment bankers," Vasella told Reuters.