It's easy to determine who is most affected by layoffs in the newspaper industry: the laid-off employees.

But the people left behind certainly feel stress, too, not only with trying to do just as much, if not more, with less help, but also dreading the next announcement of layoffs or buyouts.

According to Paper Cuts, a Web site that tracks newspaper layoffs, about 15,000 industry jobs have been cut in 2009. That's nearing the 15,984 the site tracked in 2008.

When a company announces impending layoffs, employees at least have warning. But despite the brief relief experienced after surviving the cuts, employees often feel grief for their laid-off colleagues, fatigue from the now-busier work schedule and a distrust for the company.

“There is a great myth that, following a layoff, the surviving employees will be so grateful that they still have a job that they’ll work harder and be more productive,” said Mark Murphy, chairman of the Washington, D.C.-based Leadership IQ, in a statement when his group released a study on the topic in late 2008. “But as this study shows, the opposite is usually true.”

That year-old study reported that 74 percent of the more than 4,000 workers from 318 companies that eliminated jobs in the final six months of 2008 said their productivity declined after the cuts.

That study is not solely about the newspaper industry, but challenges from a declining workforce are universal. Newspapers have reduced the amount of sections printed to save paper and ink, but also because there is less content.

According to a July 2008 article on bnet.com, companies seeking a quick savings from workforce reductions often paralyze long-term benefits.

"The direct costs of layoffs from outplacement services and severance pay can add up initially, but indirect costs — like losing experienced sales and marketing employees who have strong relationships with clients — can cause lasting damage to a business," according to the article.

With newspapers, advertising clients may be discouraged by their familiar sales representative being laid off as much as sources dislike a new reporter approaching them for information.

Despite surviving a round of layoffs, many employees lose a sense of trust due to the layoffs.

When executive editor Bill Keller told employees at The New York Times in a Dec. 18 e-mail, "there is no further newsroom staff cut planned or foreseen," it may have done little to ease the stress of employees dreading an announcement of more cuts in the future.

Keller, whose newsroom laid off 74 employees who accepted buyouts last week and plans to terminate another 26 positions as part of this current round, made a similar statement in October 2008, according to a blog, The NYTPicker, devoted to covering The Times.

"We are entering into the budget discussions for 2009 with a determination ... to protect the journalistic team that is the engine of our long-term success," Keller told the staff, according to NYTPicker. "What [the recession] will not mean, I most fervently hope, is a surrender to the short-sighted, serial staff cuts that have hollowed out some of the nation's great news organizations."

Groups that go back on those announcements are likely see the most distrust from their employees. According to a report cited in the bnet.com article from researchers Christopher Zatzick and Roderick Iverson of Simon Fraser University, "layoffs can be perceived as a violation of the psychological contract between an organization and its employees, resulting in decreased trust and greater stress in the workplace."

Newhouse newspapers long had a no-layoff policy, but has adjusted as the industry's struggles have increased. The chain told employees in August the policy was ending. The company had reminded employees the policy was for employees at daily publications, and said its New Jersey paper, The Star-Ledger, may close if not enough employees accepted buyouts. The company has also closed The Ann Arbor News (turning instead to a start-up news Web site that produces a print publication twice a week) and reduced the frequency of days three of its other Michigan papers print.

An Editor & Publisher story Wednesday citing a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics said the industry is expected to lose 24.8 percent of its jobs by 2018. The study found that newspapers ranked seventh in industries expected to lose jobs.