UK productivity levels plummet in uncertain jobs climate

The findings come from greetz.co.uk an online greetings card provider. It wanted to find out the mood of the nation during the slowdown. The report shows a third (34%) of the workforce are worried about their jobs.

60% of employees said the emotions they experience most often in relation to their jobs are "frustration", "resentment" or "anxiety", while only 11% were "enthusiastic" about their job and a mere 3% "excited" about going to work.

Commenting on the findings Tom Redman, professor of HR management and director of research at Durham Business School, said: "The economic climate does not directly affect engagement but there are other causes that can. The climate might lead to redundancies in a business or a decline in training and resources - it is these things that will have an impact on employees' engagement."

Steve Huxham, chairman of The Recruitment Society, said: "I'm not at all surprised by these findings. They show that employers should be working all the harder during the slowdown to keep staff happy. A lot of employees might have wanted to change jobs, but hesitated because of the credit crunch, so this is employers' perfect chance to invest in staff development to re-engage their teams."