About 18 percent of workers said they had been laid off at some point during the
years 2000-2003, according to a new study from Rutgers University and the University
of Connecticut.
The researchers interviewed 1,015 working-age adults selected randomly for
the study titled The Disposable Worker: Living in a Job-Loss Economy.
Two-thirds of the workers who said they were laid off during that time period
said they received no severance package or other compensation from their employer,
the Associated Press reports.
The researchers found that of those who said they lost their jobs, only 35
percent of those who earned less than $40,000 received unemployment insurance.
"There's neither private sector nor government support that's going to
most people," says Carl Van Horn, director of the John J. Heldrich Center
for Workforce Development at Rutgers, which conducted the study.
Less than one-fifth of those surveyed said they received help finding a new
job, training or career counseling, according to the news agency.
Thirty percent said their employer gave one to two weeks of notice that they would be part of a layoff,
and 34 percent said their employer gave no warning that their jobs were being cut.
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