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Special from Gallup Management Journal

Keeping people productive and hopeful in tough times isn’t as complex — or as costly — as you might think

As economic conditions worsened during 2008, U.S. workers’ confidence in their economic futures declined, according to Gallup. In January 2008, 60% of employees felt that their standard of living was improving. By October, when the extent of the financial meltdown was becoming clear, that figure had dropped to 39%; in October and November 2008, employed Americans were more likely to say their standard of living was getting worse than to say it was getting better.

However, American workers’ optimism partially recovered between November 2008 and May 2009 before stabilizing. Since last May, about half of employed Americans have consistently said that their standard of living is improving, while about one-third have said it is getting worse.

These trends have been remarkably consistent across different job categories, reflecting the breadth of the economic downturn. It’s been called an “equal opportunity” recession in the sense that it affected the perceptions of all types of workers — including service workers, manufacturing workers, managers, and professional workers.

Refer to www.gallup.com for complete story.