Here are some eye-opening numbers: Last year, nearly 20 million Americans got pink slips. By June of this year, 10 million employees had been dismissed from a range of industries and companies, including blue-chip tech firms like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, as well as once secure federal agencies. A whopping 1.6 million workers are laid off each month. Losing your job is a perpetually looming threat: 40% of American workers report being terminated at least once in their careers; most of them were taken by surprise.
Those numbers are just as bad — and often worse — for those at the top. Recruiters tell us an estimated 40%-60% of senior executives are forced out, in part due to today’s record high turnover of CEOs. Regardless of title or income, the same label is applied (and self-applied) to people who’ve lost their jobs: You’ve been “fired.”
