In fact, the firm is predicting a 37 percent increase in layoffs this year compared with last year, based on a survey of more than 1,300 corporate executives and senior-level officials that was conducted earlier this month.

The layoff forecast is the worst in the past five years, according to Career Protection officials. They also indicated that the firm has already been “inundated” with inquiries from employees at a number of companies that announced layoffs earlier this month, including Bear Stearns, Chrysler, Citigroup, Ford, Covidien, General Motors, IndyMac and Sprint Nextel.

If there is a silver lining, it’s that the executives surveyed say that they do intend to provide severance packages to employees whose positions are eliminated. Broadly speaking, however, these severance packages will not be as generous as those that have been paid out in recent years, according to the Career Protection survey.

Filed by Mark Bruno of Financial Week, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.