How to Keep Yourself Employed

Do you think your job is safe? Think again.

For 2009, the widespread advice of career and job-placement professionals is this: Prepare for the prospect of jumping or being pushed from your job.

Reach out now and to everyone -- your next job is likely to come through someone you already know.

If you get opportunities for training, take them.

And even while you're looking for that new job, be a superstar at work.

"Times are different. Times are drastically different," said Pouria "Paul" Bidhendi, president of the Orlando-based AE Concepts employment agency.

Thanks to the economic triple whammy of 2008 -- the real-estate crash, the commercial-credit freeze and the stock-market plunge -- the latest unemployment rates likely will worsen before they get better.

Next page: Don't take your job for granted