It’s bad all over right now, with layoff announcements and government unemployment reports engendering the same kind of macabre anticipation reserved for out-of-market Detroit Lions fans waiting for scores.

And while the mainstream press cast the ARM industry in some sort of “recession-proof” light through most of last year, those in the industry knew the grim reality: a sickly consumer doesn’t pay older debts.

Accounts receivable management decision makers were facing difficult operational environments and making tough choices as early as the second quarter of last year. Do we cut staff to save costs? Do we increase staff to handle rising inventory? Do we stand pat and adjust the way collect, surviving on shrinking margins?

According to the latest Credit & Debt Collection Industry Confidence Survey, many collection agencies, debt buyers and collection law firms chose the former. More than 37 percent of survey participants said they cut jobs in the fourth quarter, and another 27 percent said that cuts were coming in the first quarter of this year.

We’d like to hear from our readers on the topic of jobs cuts in the industry. Did your company trim staff recently?