5 years ago... UK workers fear for their jobs

23.08.99: UK workers are more insecure about their job prospects than at any time in the last 50 years.

According to a report published today by the Centre for Business Research at Cambridge University, job insecurity is particularly widespread among professional workers, who are worried about the effects of mergers and the introduction of IT.

Dr David Lapido of the Centre for Business Research, said: "There's a lot of change, a lot of churning, and IT has driven a lot of that. The development of IT has stripped out a lot of middle management who dealt with paperwork and processing. We had anticipated this - but didn't expect the speed at which it happened."

The report claims 40 per cent of interviewees had very little trust in their management and felt work had become much more intense over the last five years.

23.08.04: There was reason for job insecurity in IT during the late 90s - consolidation in the industry led to redundancies and internal restructuring. Then there was the dot-com bust, which led to even more job losses.

But now the IT jobs market is on a comeback - and is looking the healthiest it's been in two years.

Recent research from Reed recruitment has found that 68 per cent of IT organisations will be recruiting in the coming quarter, with an extra 26 per cent saying they'll be making new hires to keep up staff numbers.