The astounding number of newly unemployed people in the slowing American economy is painful for those with a pink slip and worrisome for everyone else.

        Yet a new study by Towers Perrin, a human-resources consulting firm with offices in Cincinnati and 73 other cities, sheds some light on why that growing furlough list may not be so catastrophic after all.

        About 6,000 workers across all economic levels of the workplace were surveyed in late August to see what trends were at play in the world of work.

        From the employee perspective, there were few surprises:

        Workers are almost always looking for a new job, even when they already have a great job.

        They don't much care about building long-term relationships with their companies anymore, and most have shifting allegiances, depending upon how long they've been employed at the firm.

New hires care more

        Those who are newly hired care about different things when they're joining a company than when they are deciding whether to stick around or how much of their discretionary effort they want to give.

        In other words, new hires tend to care a little more than people who have a few decades under their belts.

        The view from the company, based upon views of managers, does have at least one big surprise.

        While bottom-line issues are paramount — which explains all those layoffs, with something like 250,000 in September alone, according to the international outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, based in Chicago — talent runs a close second.

        The shocker is this: about three of four companies continue to hire even in the midst of downsizing.

        And only 54 percent of the companies make cuts based on performance — or, more to the point, lack of performance.

        That means that 46 percent of the companies are cutting staff based on other reasons.

Performance still matters

        What could those other reasons be? How about disagreeableness and tenure?

        That is, are grumpy longtime employees getting whacked regardless of how well they perform? Are companies using the economic slowdown to rid their ranks of the disgruntled naysayers, those who produce and whine simultaneously?

        No way, says Chris Michalak, a partner and head of Towers Perrin global talent management.

        “Performance matters a lot,” he said.

        “Organizations are making a bigger issue out of performance every day. There's a bigger increase in performance-based management systems. High-performing employees will always have power.”

        About the only time high performers are going to get laid off is if they work in low-performing units.

        “Some cutting is based on the performance of the unit,” Mr. Michalak said.

        While other recessions meant firms had to spread the work around as the work force declined, in this one companies are laying off and hiring at the same time. “We are seeing that possibly for the first time,” he said.

        Another conclusion from the survey is that companies are still worried about what they perceive to be a critical talent shortage.

        “Companies are always going to be looking for talent,” Mr. Michalak said.

        E-mail jeckberg@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/eckberg.

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