More than 76,000 job cuts were announced by firms in the United States and Europe on Monday.

U.S. firms, including Caterpillar, Sprint Nextel and Home Depot, announced a total of 45,000 job cuts. Since December 2007, the U.S. has lost 2.59 million jobs. The unemployment rate rose to 7.2 percent last month. Economists worry that as many as 600,000 jobs are being lost each month.

“This is a big deal,” said the director of the Center for Economic and Research Policy, Dean Baker. “We’re losing jobs at an incredibly rapid rate, and even with that, I’m worried they’re accelerating. We’re seeing a much more rapid rate of layoff announcements.”

European firms such as Philips and ing also announced large job cuts. In Britain, the government is even thinking about introducing a three-day week—where the government pays firms to operate for only three days a week rather than lay off workers.

In this climate, how can you make sure you keep your job? And what can you do to find another if you do lose it?

At the turn of the century, Elbert Hubbard wrote a short article describing the type of man who is never without work for long. His essay was printed and reprinted around the world. A copy was given to every man enlisted in the U.S. Navy and Marine Corp during both world wars. “Civilization is one long anxious search for just such individuals,” he wrote. “Anything such a man asks shall be granted; his kind is so rare that no employer can afford to let him go. He is wanted in every city, town and village—in every office, shop, store and factory. The world cries out for such: He is needed, and needed badly ….”

What sort of man is this? He is resourceful. He is industrious. He has initiative. He simply listens to what his boss tells him to do and does it. Hubbard described such a man in detail in his essay “A Message to Garcia.”

But in today’s abnormal climate, such a man may still find himself without work, laid off with hundreds, or thousands, of others. What can he do then?

He must apply the same diligence and resourcefulness toward finding a job. Make a full-time job out of finding a job.

For seven practical steps to take if you do find yourself without work, see our article “How to Find a Good Job.” In today’s climate, finding a job can be tricky, but with God’s help it is possible. For more on how to succeed no matter what life throws at you, read our booklet The Seven Laws of Success.