Ron Schenone

If You Have Less Than 20 Years’ Employment, Are You Recession Proof?

Posted by on Apr 14, 2009 | 4 Comments

I was reading an article over at the San Jose Mercury News about the unemployment rate hitting Silicon Valley, when a story about a laid off HP employee caught my eye. The employee had started with HP when she was 19 years old and had been with the company for 28 years. Last September she was laid off from HP from her position as a  ’printing systems technical consultant’.

But there was something about this story that struck me. In my small circle of friends and acquaintances, it seems like the people who are getting laid off in this recession are those who are in their 20th through 30th year of employment. Is this just me? Are employers getting rid of their older workers and keeping their lower paid newer employees to make ends meet?

In the SJMN article, it also states that:

Silicon Valley’s tech workforce is shrinking at an alarming rate, with job losses in the region’s dominant industry outpacing the overall employment decline across the valley.

Seemingly immune to recession for much of last year, the valley has been hit hard with tech job cuts that accelerated in the beginning of the year. Tech accounted for 21 percent of all lost jobs in the first two months of the year, for instance, compared to 13.6 percent of all lost jobs since the start of the recession in December 2007, according to a Mercury News analysis of data from the state Employment Development Department.

And more than two-thirds of the 7,112 layoffs scheduled during the first quarter were from high-tech companies, according to notices filed by companies with the EDD.

The job losses hit especially hard in a region so dominated by technology employment. And the jobs include some of the best-paying in the valley, supporting lower-paid workers in non-tech areas like retail and construction.

Tech jobs in the valley “are declining pretty rapidly,” said Jon Haveman, a principal with Beacon Economics, a firm that has done a recent study of Silicon Valley employment trends.

Please share with us your thoughts and opinions.

Comments welcome.

Source.

  • anon

    Hello from a former HP person. HP is indeed getting rid of older workers. I believe its called “demographic cleansing”.

    I worked for 30 years for that disgraceful company. If the founders of HP were alive today, they would have fired people like Mark Hurd and Carly Fiorini for their unethical behaviour. At one time HP was a great company to work for, Todays it just another hire and fire company. HP has frozen salaries for the last 10 years, cheated people out of beeper duty money and overtime. Jobs have been sent to India and other foreign companies. Those that remain have additional workload dumped on them. It has gotten worse, everybody is getting a 5% paycut (and cuts to vacation time and pension plan contributions).

    As you might guess morale is in the toilet at HP. HP employees need a union to protect them. HP also needs a few class action lawsuits for their targetting of older workers.

    Take a look at this link and be sure to read the comments:

    http://www.damiansaunders.net/2009/02/26/commentary/hp-pay-cuts-an-unfair-act-of-economic-opportunism-and-greed/

  • D Lowrey

    Too bad those who have and will lose everything will not remember what happened to them. When/if jobs become plentiful again…people will forget what they went through the past several years.

    I agree with anon…companies need to feel the pain they have caused to those who work/ed for them. The worst part of this “downturn” is those who caused it will be there to cause the next one. Until you force those in management to feel the pain they cause their workers…nothing will change. Many of these managers have never had to wonder how to pay for the rent/utilities/food. Once they do…over the long-term (3-10 years)…you will see change. Nothing like homelessness and hunger to change someone’s attitude/morals/ethics.

    Remember this…whenever you hear the saying “our employees are our asset”…better be looking for another job.

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  • bud

    It’s not the age of the job, so much as its the age of the worker.

    Although there are accrued salary and benefit costs from having an employee for several years, there is almost ALWAYS added insurance costs as a worker gets older.

    It does not matter if that worker has been with the firm for 20 years, or five years, if they are perceived to cost more due to their age