A figure of 36 percent of residents who know of someone who has lost their job in the past year as calculated from a poll by Research.bm comes as no great shock to one of the Island's top employment experts.

Doug Soares, partner at Expertise Ltd., said that people were aware of the situation due to job losses across almost every industry in the last 12 months, starting with the fund administration industry and followed by losses in the hospitality, retail, construction, telecommunications, accounting and business services sectors this year.

But he added that the insurance industry had not lost many jobs, with the notable exception of XL Capital.

The survey, which was carried out in the third quarter, revealed that five percent of Bermuda residents from a poll of 400, aged 18 or above, had lost their job over the past year and were still unemployed, while 36 percent of those questioned knew of someone who had been made redundant in the last 12 months, 21 percent of whom were still out of work.

Mr. Soares said it had to be borne in mind that many of the those who had lost their jobs were work permit holders and were no longer resident on the Island and thus not available to be surveyed.

"The fact is that Bermuda's unemployment rate is not the best gauge because a substantial portion of Bermuda's unemployment is exported with non-Bermudians leaving the island and Bermudians replacing them," he said.

And he offered some words of advice for Bermudians who had been laid off in their search for a new job that it was an ever more competitive market and not to lose heart if they fail to be picked.

"For Bermudians who are made redundant, it is important to keep in mind that there are job opportunities in virtually every job category because it is just a matter of time before they displace work permit holders who come up for renewal," he said. "The difficulty for many Bermudian job seekers though is that now, for each vacancy, employers have the choice of hiring any one of several Bermudian candidates with good experience.

"Unsuccessful candidates often assume they have lost out to a non-Bermudian candidate but in many cases a better qualified Bermudian was selected. Many Bermudians are frustrated because they are not used to competing for jobs and not accustomed to prolonged job searches. The job search environment that we are experiencing now is actually normal."

Mr. Soares said that employees should be focused on keeping their heads down and working hard at the moment, particularly during the economic downturn.

"Employees ought to be working hard to keep their jobs right now," he said. "When employers are left with no alternative than to cut jobs, it's often the least productive employees that go first unless there is a contract that specifies otherwise.

"Therefore, an employee who fears that their position may be made redundant should be thinking 'How can I contribute more in the employment relationship'?"

He said that over the past 14 months his company had been working with employers to provide career counselling services to more than 200 employees who had been made redundant.

"Those receiving outplacement services generally fit into two categories," he said. "Some take advice well; they work hard and immediately on their job search. Others amaze us with a complacent approach.

"As one might expect, the level of complacency among job seekers has diminishing as time goes on. Some are quite desperate now and unfairly blame employers assuming that their fate is a result of unfair hiring practices.

"The truth is that the best predictor of future performance is past performance so the candidates with the strongest track record of performance will get the job".