hold on for dear life

to use a lot of effort to keep something With so few jobs available, workers are holding on for dear life to the jobs they already have.

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Wilkie	WIL-kee	English
Lydia	LID-ee-ə (English), LUY-dee-ah (German, Finnish)	English, German, Finnish, Biblical, Old Church Slavic, Biblical Latin, Biblical Greek
Godgifu	-	Anglo-Saxon
Riad	-	Arabic
Casey	KAY-see	English, Irish
Edan	-	Irish, Scottish