Workers Job Security During Past 6 Months Reaches All-Time High In Global Career Confidence Index

 

Posted by C.S. Clarke, Ph.D.

 

The Right Management Career Confidence Index rose to an all-time high of 58.6 during the past six months, with worker confidence levels rising in 15 of the 18 countries around the world surveyed. It is the highest global Career Confidence Index level in the four years that Right Management has conducted the survey an increase from 57.0 last May.

This increased career confidence was especially reflected in employees greater overall optimism about the ease with which a worker could find a new job at the same pay if laid off, said Doug Matthews, Executive Vice President, Operations, for Right Management.

Significantly more employees worldwide than six months ago said it would be somewhat or very easy for a laid-off worker to find a similar job. More than 3 out of 10 employees (30.7 percent) overall said it would be somewhat or very easy for a laid-off worker to find a similar job, up from 26.8 percent in May 2006.

Still, almost two-thirds of respondents 65.1 percent said it would be somewhat or very difficult to find comparable employment if laid off, although that number decreased from 68.1 percent last May, and 72.2 percent in November 2005. Even though career confidence improved, almost two-thirds of employees globally still feel it would be difficult to find a similar job if laid off, Matthews added.

The survey covered nearly 9,100 workers in 18 countries. Among the surveys major findings were:

Employees in Norway are once again the most confident workers in the world. Only 3.8 percent of Norways workers believe there is a chance they could lose their jobs in the coming year, while 95.5 percent say that is not at all possible. Following Norway, employees in Denmark are the second most confident in the world, with only 4.8 percent believing there is a chance they could lose their jobs in the coming year, while 93.4 percent say that is not at all possible.

The United Kingdom has replaced Germany as having the worlds most pessimistic workers. The UK had the lowest Career Confidence Index of any of the 18 countries surveyed 45.3, a steep decline of 6.9 points, or 13 percent, from an index reading of 52.2 in May 2006. Furthermore, the UK experienced the biggest increase in the percentage of employees who feel they could lose their jobs in the coming year. 30.4 percent of UK employees now feel they may lose their jobs within the next 12 months, up from 22.2 percent in May 2006.

German workers are the most pessimistic in the world about finding a similar job at a comparable salary if laid off. Just 6.3 percent of German employees feel it would be easy to find a similar job if laid off. In comparison, globally, 30.7 percent of full time employees feel it would be easy to find a comparable job.

American workers confidence in their job security during the past six months reached an all-time high. 80.8 percent of American workers predicted there was little or no chance they would lose their jobs in the coming year up from 80.3 percent in May 2006, the last time the survey was done. Furthermore, more employees than ever in the history of the survey 22.8 percent feel it would be easy to find a similar job at the same pay if they were laid off, up from 18.2 percent last May, according to the survey of more than 1,000 full-time U.S. employees.

More people feel its unlikely unemployment will increase over the next year. 33.9 percent said it is unlikely unemployment would increase in the next year, up from 27.5 percent last May. Despite their heightened job security, the percentage of U.S. employees expecting to advance in their careers has not improved significantly during the past four years to 53 percent in the latest survey, the same level as in May, and up from 51 percent in 2003. While U.S. employees are more confident in their personal job security and the ability to find a comparable job if laid off, there hasnt been a similarly appreciable increase in the number of employees expecting to be promoted, Matthews said. Organizations are flatter today due to past downsizings, mergers and acquisitions, and there are fewer organizational levels to which employees can be promoted.

About the Methodology

The Career Confidence Index is conducted by Right Management 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. These results are based on interviews conducted in September and have an average error margin of +/-4.32 percentage points. The fieldwork was coordinated by ICR-International Communications Research of Media, Pa.

The Global Career Confidence Index

The Global Career Confidence Index is based on two questions posed to full-time workers in 18 countries:

What is the possibility of you, yourself, being laid off from your job during the next year?
How easy or difficult do you think it would be for the average person who was laid off from his or her job today to find a similar job at the same pay?

The actual Global Career Confidence Index incorporates both sets of responses into a single number. Out of a perfect confidence score of 100, the global Career Confidence Index in November 2006 is 58.6, up from 57.0 in May 2006. In addition to this global index, Right Management calculates an index for the geographical

regions and for each of the 18 countries that participate in the survey.

 

About Right Management

Right Management (www.right.com) is a leading global provider of integrated consulting solutions across the employment lifecycle. Right Management helps clients maximize the return on their human capital investments while assisting individuals to achieve their full potential.

Right Management is a wholly owned subsidiary of Manpower, Inc. (NYSE:MAN), a world leader in the employment services industry, creating and delivering services that enable its clients to win in the changing world of work.