Very much anecdotal, and I'm sure I saw people hit harder than many in quiet, unexciting companies who just kept working - I was contracting as were a fair numb

Very much anecdotal, and I'm sure I saw people hit harder than many in quiet, unexciting companies who just kept working - I was contracting as were a fair number of my friends. It felt like a nationwide hard stop - there was almost nothing but agency fishing expeditions going on jobserve. > fairly confident ... I would be able to keep myself among the 85% that remains employed. For my whole career upto the dot com bust in 01 I'd have confidently agreed. After 2.5 years struggling to get work and seeing the same with skilled friends I realised how much was down to luck. By the time I got work again many opinions had changed. I still have much of the frugality. Certainly I knew of US people having issue, and I was surprised to read recently on HN [1] someone widely known having a very similar experience. Not sure about laws - I don't think so, it seemed to affect everything. Definitely not unions though. Unions and IT is rare, though there are some union members in govt, or old industries. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12218583 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12218583