Rol Fessenden wrote:
> I feel a lot of concern about downsizing, but the employment
> statistics do not really support this. The reality is that even more
> than 3 million jobs were created in the last five years, and as a
> result, unemployment is now at fairly low levels.
I cannot really agree with that, at least not for central Europe.
It may be true that the USA faces a different situation, but here in
Europe the real rate of unemployment goes up to 20-30% in most developed
countries. The point is that this number consists at least of two parts:
the 'official' unemployed people and the early retired people. We tend to
become 2/3 societies, where only 2/3 has a job (and still a high income),
but the other 1/3 is faced by low income and unemployment.
> The population of middle managers -- primary victims of downsizing --
> is essentiaLy unchanged over the last 10 years. Unemployment among
> middle managers is very low -- around 2%.
Primary vicitms of downsizing are also workers, and not only
middle management. Middle management is still able to protect its
self-interest, and before middle management must leave a company, it is
very likely that the people at the bottom of the hierarchy has to leave.
-- Wolfgang Schmid e-mail: ws2@student.open.ac.uk Compuserve: 100101.3210@Compuserve.com ($!!)company address: OMV AG Raffinerie Schwechat Mannswoertherstrasse 28 A-2320 Schwechat Austria/Europe
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>