Job security seems ****. My brother has been with TI for about a decade, and has narrowly survived two layoffs.
I've personally never been laid off. But I've been through one. It happened my second week with the Cirrus Logic. They didn't give any notice. The guy in the cube next to me boxed up his stuff and left on the 7th day I officially worked there. Little did I know that I had been hired to replace him. Everyone at the company regardless of time employed there was given 2 weeks salary instead of the usual 2 weeks + 1 week for every year worked there. One guy had been with the company twenty years.
I ended up leaving the company after 3 months, but there were other reasons involved with that decision.
My other brother is an attorney. The economy is hitting them hard too. There is a shortage of work to go around. What happens to them? No layoffs, but they have to pay for their own parking now. Firing one associate out of a huge law firm could have payed for everyone's parking, but they didn't do that.
It would be nice if engineers were treated like that, instead of like cattle.