Few recover totally from downsizing.

When downsizing detours managers and professionals off their career track, they may have a hard time accelerating to their pre-displacement income level when they get re-employed, indicates Thomas N. Daymont, professor of human resource management, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pa. Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau's survey of displaced workers, Daymont and Wayne A. Morra of Beaver College, Glenside, Pa., analyzed the earnings losses due to job displacement of highly skilled white-collar workers and to what extent their new earnings replaced those of their previous job. The answer was that, for the most part, they didn't.

On average, managers and professionals re-employed after losing their job earned just 85% of what they would have had they stayed in their previous position. For instance:

* More than one-quarter received less than two-thirds of their anticipated non-displacement income.

* Older workers suffered substantially greater losses. Managers in their late 50s experienced a salary...