Fortune Magazine asked some of the country’s top employment consultants for advice on how to hang onto a job in a tough, downsizing economy. The responses boiled down to four approaches:

1. Stay visible. Nothing wrong with putting your nose to the grindstone, but you have to lift your nose every once in a while to let people know what you’re doing. Don’t make the mistake that others will automatically notice all your wonderful work. They’re too busy noticing their own wonderful work.

2. Stay inside the lines. The experts say that companies tend to get more conservative and stick closer to their core as times get tough. Translation: Mavericks are not especially appreciated. Innovation is always good if if gets the desired results. Being different for the sake of being different is dangerous, especially now.

3. Stay busy. The key to this one to to manage yourself — every day — and pick up projects rather than waiting for the boss to dole them out. Volunteer for stuff. Finish tasks that have been on the back burner. Heck, fix the back burner if it needs to be fixed.

4. Stay social. No one’s telling you to kiss the CEO’s behind, but be careful about blowing off the all-employees get-together because “I have too much work to do.” If the boss thinks the get-together is important, it’s important.

A changing economy and changing attitudes about work have resulted in some new reasons rising to the top of the list of why employees leave – giving you clues about how you’ll want to frame your appeal to job-hunters.

HR consultant Right Management asked 1,308 people why they left their jobs in the last year. Here’s how they answered (numbers add up to more than 100% because some people said they left for more than one reason):

• Downsizing or restructuring (54%);
• Sought new challenges or opportunities (30%);
• Ineffective leadership (25%);
• Poor relationship with manager (22%);
• To improve work/life balance (21%);
• Contributions to the company were not valued (21%);
• Better compensation and benefits (18%). 

At one time, having a bad boss seemed to always show up as the No. 1 reason, but these days, people are more likely to leave because of a layoff. (Still, though, the bad-boss reasons –  “ineffective leadership” and “poor relationship with manager” – are near the top.)

What the numbers show
The numbers seem to indicate that if you’re recruiting, plan to see more and more people who’ve been caught in a downsizing shuffle. And plan to appeal to them by emphasizing the stability and growth opportunities your organization features. Job-hunters’ antennae will be picking up on that, especially in this economy.

Apart from that, you’ll want to go with many of the same strategies you’ve probably been using:

• having candidates meet with potential supervisors to test the chemistry
• talking about — but not promising — avenues for advancement, and
• describing the highlights of your benefits package, over and above just salary concerns.