Keeping Your Job

Tuesday, 17 Mar 09

Overview

If you've got a job, how do you hang onto it?
If you've lost your job, what are your long term prospects?

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INSIGHT brings together workers, CEOs and the assistant Treasurer, Chris Bowen to debate survival strategies for employees and employers as the unemployment rate climbs to 5.2%, and as 54,000 full time jobs were lost in February - the largest such fall in almost 2 decades.

To hang onto their jobs, many thousands of workers are taking the pragmatic option of a 4 day week. Many thousands of others wait each week for the precarious prospect of one or two shifts to sustain them.

At the other end of the equation, employers are being heavily squeezed by the banks with credit increasingly difficult to access.

Figures suggest that one in 8 small businesses are on the brink of failure due to cashflow problems.

Are there any real answers to riding out this downturn?

Meet the Guests

Christine Christian

Christine Christian is CEO of the credit reporting agency Dunn and Bradstreet. They monitor the financial health of thousands of Australian businesses. Christine believes the worst is yet to come, with 27% of businesses saying they plan to shed employees.

Ray Roe

Ray Roe is CEO of recruitment firm Adecco’s Australasian operation. He believes the employment rate is dropping faster here than in the rest of the world and agrees with Federal Industry Minister Kim Carr, that no job is absolutely safe.

Garry Weaven

Garry Weaven is the Chair of Industry Funds Management, an investment service provider to the superannuation industry. He is also a Director of Pacific Hydro, a world leader in renewable energy and a Board Member of VicUrban, the Victorian Government’s residential and urban renewal development agency.

Radmila Kucan

Radmila Kucan and her husband Marko were stood down without pay in February from car gear box manufacturer Drivetrain International. Radmilla has since lost her job and her redundancy entitlements. Marko is just hanging on, but has only been promised 8 weeks work.