Profound weight of layoffs is seen in work trends survey
(1)"... nearly a quarter of Americans say they were laid off at some point during the recession or afterward, according to the survey. More broadly, nearly eight in 10 say they know someone in their circle of family and friends who has lost a job."
"Three in 10 said the economy would never fully recover from the Great Recession."
"Americans over all were also somewhat less critical of bankers this time than they were two years earlier. About one in three (35 percent) respondents attributed high unemployment levels to the actions of Wall Street, compared with 45 percent in 2010."
"Americans were most likely to attribute high unemployment to cheap foreign labor. Four in 10 also said they believed illegal immigrants were taking Americans’ job opportunities — which does not bode well for political support for an amnesty program now being discussed in Washington."
"Most people surveyed lost at least some of their savings. Asked about their financial health, six in 10 Americans said their finances would not improve in the next few years; just 16 percent said their family finances were already back to prerecession levels or suffered no loss in the first place."
"More educated, better-off people were substantially more likely to report being as financially secure as they were before the recession began."
"Responses are based on an online survey conducted by GfK using a nationally representative sample of 1,090 adults. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points."
(1)Rampell, Catherine. "Profound Weight of Layoffs Is Seen in Work Trends Survey." New York Times. Feb. 7, 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/07/business/profound-weight-of-layoffs-se...
(2) [John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University Work Trends Survey-- report will be released Feb. 14, 2013]
[verified 4/17/14]