Coping with the fear of layoffs

In the wake of the global financial crisis, financial institutions, manufacturers and service providers in the United States and Europe have started to slash their payrolls as part of corporate restructuring. In South Korea, quite a few corporations are also preparing mass layoffs.

Some domestic financial institutions are slashing their work forces, beginning with layoffs of nonregular workers. Automakers, which are planning to cut down on their production in the near future, are expected to encourage early retirement. One of the top 50 homebuilders has recently gone belly up, as many of its new apartments remain unsold. Mass layoffs are certain to follow when it goes into court receivership.

All these pieces of bad news are coming at a time when the nation's job creation capacity has been halved. In October, the working population increased by a mere 97,000 people on a year-on-year basis. At the outset of this year, the increase surpassed the 200,000 mark.