In the UK, fired is generally for when an employer dismisses you from employment due to a specific issue (timekeeping, poor performance, caught stealing printers etc.) It is very different to being made redundant, which occurs when the employer believes your role is no longer viable and has become redundant. Most employers here would not have an issue with the latter, but might have concern with the former. In both cases I found employment within three months, in both cases during a job market like the current climate, in both cases the employer in question acted like an arse, but did not make moving on difficult. The redundancy was just a cheap move to offshore our teams jobs to southeast Asia, the firing was related to being told I was not pulling 100 hour weeks like the rest of the suckers there, and I said "damn right".