Dan Verbin(A7)
A new study found that if the recession continues, half of American companies will likely fire workers, according to Fox News.
The layoffs would come as companies scale back their workforces after a period of increased hiring.
The PwC survey, published on Thursday, looked at over 700 executives and board members from a broad range of US industries.
It found that half of those surveyed said they were getting read or already had slashed their workforce, while over half had begun hiring freezes.
Slightly less than half had also reduced or eliminated signing bonuses implemented over the last year to attract workers in a market with a labor shortage.
“Respondents are also taking proactive steps to streamline the workforce and establish the appropriate mix of worker skills for the future,” the survey said. “This comes as no surprise. After a frenzy of hiring and a tight labor market over the past few years, executives see the distinction between having people and having people with the right skills.”
Job growth has exceeded expectations the past few months, adding 528,000 new jobs and lowering unemployment to a historic low of 3.5 percent.
But the labor market has shown signs of cooling. Major companies such as Walmart, Apple, Meta Google parent Alphabet and Microsoft all announced hiring freezes or layoffs in the past few weeks in preparation for a potential prolonged recession.
