Are You Worried About the Recession?

Blind Staff Writer -

In August this year, 3 out of 4 economists predicted that there would be a recession by the end of 2021. We asked professionals on Blind about their predictions on the economy, and how companies are preparing for economic uncertainty.

Here are the questions we asked:

Q1: Do you predict there will be a recession in 2020? (9,030 responses)

  • Yes: 37.53% 
  • No: 34.42%
  • I don’t know: 28.05%

Key Takeaways:

  • There is much uncertainty in the projection of the economy for 2020.
  • Booking.com (47.30%), Airbnb (47.06%), and eBay (44.44%) are the top three companies with employees who believe that a recession will hit. (Hospitality and e-commerce companies are concerned) 

Q2: Have you seen cost-cutting at your workplace this year? (5,469 responses)

  • Yes: 54.05%
  • No: 45.95%

Key Takeaways:

  • More professionals in the Finance Industry (59.87%) saw cost-cutting at their workplace compared to Tech (48.72%). 
  • For Finance companies, PayPal (79.49%), Visa (78.26%), and Capital One (78.00%) are the top three companies where professionals saw the most cost-cutting at their workplace in 2019.
  • For Tech companies, Uber (87.50%), WeWork (84.21%), eBay (84.09%) and Lyft (82.05%) are the top four companies where professionals saw the most cost-cutting at their workplace in 2019.
  • Out of 20 companies with more than 40 responses, more than half of the employees at 14 companies claimed to have seen cost-cutting at their companies in 2019. 

Q3: Are you worried about layoffs at your company in 2020? (5,273 responses)

  • Yes: 36.54%
  • No: 63.46%

Key Takeaways:

  • Overall, 36.54% of professionals are concerned that they might be affected by layoffs in 2020.
  • For Finance companies, Paypal (62.86%), Visa (47.37%), Capital One (43.48%) had the highest percentage of employees who are worried about layoffs in 2020. 
  • For Tech companies, Uber (61.07%), Expedia (60.32%), and Cisco (58.67%) had the highest percentage of employees who are worried about layoffs in 2020. 
  • More professionals in the Finance Industry (38.22%) are worried about layoffs in 2020 than in Tech (30.55%).