For the last couple of years, the problem plaguing the job market was that companies have been in a holding pattern: Companies weren’t laying off workers in high numbers. But if you were already laid off, finding a company willing to expand was impossible.

CATHERINE RAMPELL

Dollars to doughnuts.

Even so, workers still employed remain anxious about their job security, according to new survey data from Gallup.

A USA Today/Gallup Poll conducted in mid-August, based on a survey of 489 adults employed full or part time, found that 30 percent said they were worried about being laid off, similar to the 31 percent who answered this way in August 2009.

The survey also found that workers were concerned that their hours, wages and benefits would be cut back. Benefit cuts were the most common worry, with 44 percent of workers surveyed saying they thought benefits might be on the chopping block.

Lower-income workers were especially likely to be concerned about their job security:

As you can see, workers in households earning less than $50,000 annually were about twice as likely as their counterparts in households making at least $75,000 to be concerned about layoffs, shorter workweeks and off-shoring.

Maybe the anxiety is unfounded, and companies are not planning layoffs at any increased pace. But such worries can become self-fulfilling if workers start cutting back in preparation for potential job losses. If they cut back their spending, companies don’t sell as much and then starting paring down their own staffs.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=89cbc6e17f2f6d26c2618fa6e0577c02