3m ‘in fear for jobs’

Over three million workers in Britain are worried about keeping their job over the next year, according to research released by the Trades Union Congress (TUC).

The research, undertaken by YouGov, suggests redundancy may hit many employees – who may now be concerned about debt management issues arising from mortgage arrears and other problems.

According to the figures, workers in Wales are the least optimistic for the future, with a fifth saying they were “not very confident” or “not at all confident” when asked if they thought they would still be with their current employer over the next year, if they chose to be.

General secretary of the TUC Brendan Barber said the findings do not indicate three million extra people will be out of work next year, but workers are getting “jittery”.

“But there is a real danger that if everyone thinks that the downturn will be deeper than it needs to be it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy,” he warned, however.

This week, Legal & General said two-thirds of people are “over-estimating” the price of life insurance and are thus risking debts if faced with redundancy or illness.

By Morwenna Kearns