Should You Be Always Ready For A Job Search?

Four-fifths of office workers think they’re prepared to start looking for a job tomorrow if they lost their jobs, but almost half (44 percent) say it’s been more than a year since they updated their resumes, according to a new poll from staffing firm Robert Half International. With unemployment over 10 percent, RHI says, this is an unpleasant situation to be in.

Reesa Staten, senior vice president and director of workplace research for Robert Half International, suggests creating a “personal personnel file” to keep track of your achievements.

But is it really something to be worried about? Should you be ready to lose your job on a moment’s notice, especially with unemployment over 10 percent?

Maybe if you work in the print media industry, but in general—let’s say you’re doing PR for a company in another industry or writing for a web site—we say don’t panic. (Don’t rest on your laurels, either, because it’s horrible out there) Don’t go around thinking that you’re going to be out of a job any minute (unless there have been signs at your company that this could be the case).

Here’s a NYT article from last month that explains the slow job churn we’ve been experiencing: “The consequences of a job loss are terribly high, but—given that the unemployment rate is almost 10 percent—the odds of job loss are surprisingly low.”

So hang in there, and by all means, keep your resume current. But don’t panic.

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