American Companies To Lay Off Workers, Stop Hiring; London Executives Start Job Hunting

New York, NY (AHN) - To cope up with one of the worst financial crises to have hit the American economy, 10 percent of U.S. firms are planning to lay off workers, while another 63 percent said they will freeze hiring for the last quarter of 2008.

The rise in number of companies planning to temporarily stop hiring new employees to 63 percent from 59 percent for the 3rd quarter of 2008 reflects the worsening economic scenario for most U.S. businesses, expected to spiral further with rejection by Congress of the $700 billion bailout plan.

The online survey was conducted by Harris Interactive for USA Today and CareerBuilder.com. It was made from Aug. 21 to Sept. 9, with over 3,000 human resource professionals and hiring managers.

Unemployment is a scenario that has hit hard not only American workers, but also European executives as the financial crisis extended its grip on major western economies like the United Kingdom.

Cafes in London are full of executives carrying their resumes and undergoing interviews by headhunters as a large number lost their work with the collapse of several British banks.

It has become a buyer's market for headhunters who had difficulty in the past to sign up talents with lower compensation packages. Linda Jackson, directors of Fairplace, a career consultancy, told the Los Angeles Times, "We haven't been able to get our hands on good operations people for some time, and now suddenly we are managing to find top-rate people we've been looking to hire for a long time."

Even the British government set up a information kiosk at Canary Wharf to recruit laid-off finance experts to become public school teachers. The come-on of the government Training and Development Agency for Schools to career shifters is that teaching offers jobs security.