2008 outlook: The job market

Expect a mixed bag in the job market. Although companies are expected to be more cautious about hiring, no one is predicting widespread layoffs.

By Donna Rosato, Money Magazine senior writer

(NEW YORK) Money Magazine -- And while the pace of job creation is expected to slow, companies are still planning roughly the same salary increases as they offered this year, about 3.8 percent on average, according to Mercer Human Resource Consulting.

But your job security and ability to snag a raise will depend a lot on your line of work.

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Make money in 2008:
The entire outlook

If you're employed in a housing-related industry - which cuts a wide swath from mortgage bankers to construction workers to managers at Home Depot - holding on to your job may be a challenge, let alone negotiating a bump in your salary.

But if your job isn't directly linked to real estate - or for that matter, if you work in an area such as health care, hotels or education, where demand continues to exceed supply - then your job should be safe and you ought to be able to wangle a raise.

Be prepared to make a case for it though. Companies are increasingly allocating money for bonuses and other pay-forperformance programs.

So if you want to make more, you'll have to convince the boss that you've earned it.

The wild card: To date, the economy's been resilient enough to create jobs despite the drag of the housing slump.

But if the housing downturn worsens and starts pulling down other parts of the economy, slow job growth could turn into outright job losses.

2008 outlook: Spending Top of page

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.