photo credit: Alex Barth

It’s more bad news for the Generation X and Y’ers - it looks like they may have a serious problem when retirement rolls around. In addition to future problems with Social Security, young workers have also shown that they cash out their 401(k) accounts every time they switch employers. And since the average young person will work for seven employers in their lifetime, they many not accumulate enough savings before age 65. (more…)

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Over at About.com’s Financial Planning site they recently talked about asking for a raise at work. Obviously, this is one of the easiest ways to increase the amount of money you’re earning, but most of us find it one of the hardest things to do.

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For the seventh year in a row, 2009’s salary raises will only compensate for interest and cost-of-living increases. The 3.8 percent expected raise will do little for most workers, though experts believe that certain top performers will likely receive much larger raises. In addition, one-time performance pay will increase by 10.6 percent, a small number than 2008’s 10.8 percent 2007’s 11.8 percent.

Ken Abosch, of Hewitt Associates, a compensation consulting business, says that “most of the compensation growth today comes from (one-time merit-based) pay - it accounts for almost three-quarters of the increase.” In contrast, more than ten years ago, base pay increases accounted for the majority of all yearly compensation growth. While Abosch did not mention why such trends began, he did note that it will likely continue in coming years.

In fact, in a study by Hewitt Associates, the most common of these one-time performance increases are signing bonuses (65 percent of companies), incentives (63 percent), special reconditions (56 percent), individual performance (41 percent), and retention bonuses (39 percent). Nevertheless, many longtime employees don’t realize that they’re eligible for such bonuses, and so the majority of American workers subsist on cost-of-living raises only. Do yourself a favor, though, and find out whether you are eligible for such an increase - doing so could really help out in the year to come.

photo credit: AdrianDC

America’s struggling economy has led to layoffs and less hires, causing the nation’s unemployment rate to soar to its highest rate in four years. In fact, in the first seven months of 2008, more than 463,000 Americans have lost their jobs. Many are unable to find adequate replacements.

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TGIF used to mean “Thank God It’s Friday,” but the phrase has been losing meaning in the sinking economy. For many, Friday is no longer the last day of the work week, but just another day to job hunt.

Nationwide unemployment has hit 5.5%, up from 5% in April - that’s the steepest monthly increase in over 22 years.According to the Labor Department, more than 324,000 jobs have been lost this year, 49,000 in May alone. Those are a lot of American out of work. (more…)

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Headlines regularly scream about job losses and rising unemployment, but at least over at Yahoo Finance they’re trying to do something about it. They’ve just published some tips on how to make sure you keep your job, including: (more…)

credit: AdrianDCWith the economy on a downturn and the dreaded “recession” word in the air, such economic indicators as home foreclosures and 63,000 layoffs in February are sure to have people worried. In fact, the floundering economy may require many more layoffs, so even if you’re confident in your job, you should know how to prepare for a layoff:
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