May 10, 2005 11:20 AM US Eastern Timezone

Despite their relative security about their own jobs, Canadians still believe the overall job market remains tight: Nearly 80 percent said it would be somewhat or very difficult for an out-of-work employee to find a comparably paying job. Among that group, 31 percent said it would be "very difficult" for a laid-off worker to find a new job. Those numbers are similar to those reported by Canadian workers six months ago when Right last conducted its survey of worker confidence.

"Employees are feeling cautiously more confident than they did six months ago about the job market," said Bram Lowsky, senior vice president of Right in Eastern Canada. "But there is recognition that jobs are still not plentiful, nor are they easy to land. Until the job market completely recovers, we are only seeing incremental shifts in worker confidence levels."

Right surveyed workers in 18 countries to determine how confident they felt about their jobs and prospects for finding a new job, if necessary. Workers in Germany are the most pessimistic about their country's job markets.

In Germany, 15.5 percent of employees believe their own jobs are at risk, and 97 percent say a laid-off worker would have a somewhat or very difficult time finding new work. That group included 62 percent who said a laid-off worker would have a "very difficult" time replacing a lost job.

Norway is home to the world's most confident workers. After Norway, other high-scoring worker confidence levels were found in Spain and Japan, which tied for second as the country with the most optimistic workers. Also scoring high in worker confidence were Sweden and Ireland.

In addition to Germany, lower worker confidence levels were reported in Switzerland and Italy.

From most confident to least confident, the results by country were: Norway, Spain and Japan (tied for second), Ireland, Sweden, Australia, Korea, Denmark the UK, Hong Kong, US, Belgium, France, Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany.

Individual country indexes ranged from a low of 43.1 in Germany to a high of 63.2 in Norway. Canada's index score of 48.6 ranked sixth of 14 countries.

"Overall, worker confidence levels around the globe appear to be trending upward," said Lowsky. "In 13 of the 18 countries surveyed, worker confidence levels were higher than they were six months ago."

About the Methodology

The Career Confidence Index(TM) is conducted by Right Management Consultants twice a year to measure career confidence among fulltime workers around the globe. The Index is based on telephone interviews with a random sample of 300 - 1,000 fulltime workers in each country, based on country size.

In Canada, 520 fulltime workers, at all levels and with household incomes ranging from less than $25,000 to more than $75,000, were surveyed. These results are based on interviews conducted in March and April and have an average error margin of +/- 4.31 points (+/- 4.26 for Canada). Workers in the following countries were surveyed: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. The fieldwork was coordinated by ICR - International Communications Research of Media, Pa.

About Right Management Consultants

Right Management Consultants (www.right.com/ca) is the world's largest career transition and organizational consulting firm. It offers services to corporations of all sizes through a global network of more than 300 service locations and the Internet. The company is a worldwide leader in customized career transition solutions and also offers a wide range of organizational consulting services, including talent management, leadership development and organizational performance services. In combination, the two lines of business enable Right to help businesses manage the entire life cycle of their employees. Right is a wholly owned subsidiary of Manpower, Inc. (NYSE:MAN).