EMPLOYERS STRUGGLING TO SURVIVE

    The deepening payroll reductions and the surging unemployment rate underscore the fact that businesses are struggling to survive amid the financial crisis, the worst one since the 1930s, and the economic recession, which has been in the second year.

    As a result of the recession, businesses are suffering from plunges in their sales and profits, both at home and abroad. Like their domestic customers, foreign buyers are also cutting back as other countries cope with their own economic problems.

    Moreover, banks and other financial institutions, battered by the financial crisis, have become reluctant to lend, making credit harder to access.

    In order to survive, businesses are shrinking their work forces and turning to other ways to slash costs, including trimmings workers' hours, freezing wages or cutting pay.

    The average work week in February, for example, stayed at 33.3 hours, matching the record low set in December.

    Squeezed by the financial crisis and the economic recession, business bankruptcy filings rose 54 percent last year, faster than the 30.6 percent increase in individual filings, according to the federal bankruptcy court.

    While consumer bankruptcies are 96 percent of all the filings, the impact of business filings can be much greater because they usually are accompanied by job losses and with suppliers and creditors not getting full payment.

    Businesses would not be inclined to ramp up hiring until they are sure any economic recovery has staying power, economists believe.