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Since the beginning of July, the number of workers facing the axe has been mounting rapidly.
That was always going to happen.
While an estimated 9.2m folk have been furloughed during lockdown, as soon as the cost to companies started to rise, they were going to consider cutting back.
There have been various estimates about how many people could end up out of work this year.
A survey published in late June suggested that 2m employees could be facing the chop when government support for furlough ends.
The true reckoning will be when the support package ends in October.
The research from Market Finance among 2,000 companies warned that a quarter of furloughed workers will be made redundant in September.
Each and every job lost affects a person, who may be a friend or a member of your family or, crucially for financial advisers, a client.I have been keeping a tally of big companies announcing massive redundancy programmes.
British Airways has plans to reduce its workforce by 12,000, for instance.
Centrica, SSP – owner of Upper Crust – and EasyJet are all putting around 5,000 people out of work.
Debenhams, Rolls Royce, Ryanair, Virgin Atlantic, Dixons Carphone, Ovo Energy, Travis Perkins, BP and Royal Mail have all announced cutbacks of between 2,000 to 4,000 staff.
At the beginning of July the BBC led its news agenda with details of 12,000 jobs being lost in 48 hours as a bloodbath hit retailers such as Topshop-owner Arcadia, Harrods, John Lewis, WHSmith and TM Lewin.
The list grows daily and it is important to bear in mind that these are not just statistics.
Job loss anxiety
Each and every job lost affects a person, who may be a friend or a member of your family or, crucially for financial advisers, a client.
I know people who work at three of the companies who have already announced cutbacks and they are naturally worried.
Many people will simply fall into survival mode, which will mean that friends and trusted advisers will be crucially important to them.Only one has already been told they are out of work, but the other two are on notice, which means they are very likely to lose their jobs.
I have also noticed a rise in readers’ emails asking about redundancy advice.
They are mainly concerned about their rights, but there is an underlying question about their finances.
How can people survive losing their income? What should they do to ensure they can cope while looking for a new job?
For older people, a redundancy may be time to take stock and move to a less pressurised job or even a more enjoyable one.
Some will even be thinking about taking early retirement, if their finances allow it.
Others are keen to find out if they can access their pension savings to help them through what they expect to be some tough times ahead.
I have been made redundant six times and in normal circumstances my advice to people is that it is a great opportunity to take stock.
Positive thinking
Losing a job is how I went freelance in the first place, which opened me up to lots of interesting and different opportunities, for instance.
Tim Harris, boss of ChipsAway, Ovenclean and Barking Mad, which are owned by Franchise Brands, is an advocate of that positive thinking.
“Without sounding glib, I prefer to call recessions ‘reset sessions’, as they provide people the headspace to think about what they actually want from their career,” he says.
“Perhaps they’ve always hated their commute; maybe they’ve continually been ignored for promotion or might even think their skills lie best outside the industry they currently service.
“Redundancy provides the headspace to start thinking like an entrepreneur. For many, it will be the push they needed to venture into self-employment.”
But with such uncertainty ahead, it is not going to be easy for everyone to face the prospect with such positivity.
Some of the advice will be hard for people to take and some tough decisions may be needed.Adviser help
Many people will simply fall into survival mode, which will mean that friends and trusted advisers will be crucially important to them.
Financial advisers must keep up-to-date with clients’ work situations and be ready to offer professional help when it is needed.
It will almost certainly be needed by anyone who does lose their job, whether it is to reassess their financial arrangements, or to choose what assets to realise to help them through the months ahead.
Retirement planning in particular could be hit, which will mean reaffirming the importance of pension nest eggs.
People are likely to need help in deciding what to do with their company pensions now they no longer work for a company, which in some cases they could have been with for decades.
Some of the advice will be hard for people to take and some tough decisions may be needed.
Clients are likely to scrap whatever careful financial planning they had in place, which means there have to be fresh plans put in place.
The uncertainty ahead means financial adviser roles have never been more important to clients.
And helping them make the right choices could help restore the industry’s slightly tarnished image, which could be something positive to emerge from the current mess.
Simon Read is a freelance journalist
