Poll Position: Yes, I am worried about my job

Regional - The current economic climate has got marketers concerned about the prospect of losing their jobs as we head into the second quarter of 2009, according to a snap poll on marketing-interactive.com.

The week-long poll asked ‘How concerned are you that you might lose your job this year?' and offered users the option of selecting either ‘Not concerned at all', ‘A little concerned', and ‘Very concerned' as answers.

70% of respondents showed concern they might lose their jobs this year with 36% saying they were ‘a little concerned' while 34% were ‘very concerned'. Out of the 275 votes cast, only 31% were ‘not concerned at all at the possibility of losing their jobs this year.

Aquent's regional director Asia Steven Pang said: "there hasn't been widespread reduction in the advertising, PR and marketing industry as yet. There has been some pruning of course."

And it seems job anxiety levels in this region could take a turn for the worse depending on how businesses do in the first quarter of 2009 as the financial year ends for Japanese and Korean companies in March and performances are known.

"So come April they will have new budget and know how much they are going to spend on marketing. Right now it's pretty bleak if you read the papers," Pang said.

"Everyone's doing the best they can for Q1 and reviewing the situation in April and May. That's when we will know if it's going to be a really tough year and if you'll have to prepare yourself for headcount chopping."

Marketing's new poll is on the sponsorship saga involving controversial swimmer Michael Phelps. It asks 'Would you dump gold medal winning superstar Michael Phelps for his bong bust pics if you were one of his sponsors?'. Vote now.