Employees No Longer Fearing Layoffs – Job Expectations Increasing

Tweet
Job attitudes research shows that US employees are confident in current job security but have high expectations for the future.

CHARLOTTE, NC June 1, 2011 – American workers are easing their worries about layoffs and beginning to focus their attention on career advancement again, according to the recent Job Attitudes in a Post-Recession Economy study conducted by Accelerant Research. The study, which included a quantitative survey and in-depth qualitative interviews of American workers, revealed heightened confidence and optimism in the workplace as well as insight into what employers should be keeping top-of-mind.

The vast majority of US workers (86%) are confident that they can continue working at their employer as long as they perform satisfactorily. This increased sense of security on the tail end of ‘The Great Recession’ is giving way to high expectations of what future employment should look like. Nearly two-thirds of employees (64%) believe that their employment situation will improve in the next five years.

Other points of optimism relate to compensation, in which 76% of workers expect their income to increase in the next five years, and 29% believe their income will do so by more than 25%. “This quality of attitude about a better tomorrow shows the resiliency of the American public,” explains Dr. Paul Rubenstein, Accelerant Research’s President. “Despite the economic upheaval over the past two years, Americans expect that their lot in life will improve over time.”

While the survey findings were highly encouraging for employees, the data also showed key areas of concern for employers in the coming years, such as losing talented employees. The data showed that nearly three out of five workers surveyed (57%) believe that there are better jobs available than their current position.

During the recent SIOP (Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology) conference in Chicago, Dr. Andrea S. Goldberg, President of Digital Culture Consulting, LLC shared these research results and added “attracting and retaining the most talented individuals in the labor force, both currently employed and unemployed, will be key for organizations as we climb out of this economic period. One important way for organizations to create competitive advantage is to embrace and strategically use social media to foster positive employment brands as well as to use various social media sites to attract the best candidates.”

About the research: Accelerant Research (www.AccelerantResearch.com) conducted the Job Attitudes in a Post-Recession Economy survey online among a demographically representative sample of Americans 21 years of age or older who are currently employed and work at least 20 hours per week. Accelerant Research partnered with Survey Sampling International (www.surveysampling.com) to recruit qualified participants for this study and Fresno, CA-based Decipher Inc. (www.decipherinc.com) for web survey programming and hosting. After completing the survey, a subset of 50 participants were recruited to participate in in-depth qualitative interviews, which were conducted via BlogNog (www.BlogNogResearch.com), Accelerant Research’s proprietary platform for online qualitative research. For more information about the survey or the follow-up ethnographic interviews, please contact Accelerant Research at info@accelerantresearch.com or (866) 683-7407.

About Accelerant Research:
Accelerant Research is a full-service marketing research and consulting firm headquartered in Charlotte, NC, which specializes in customer loyalty, product development, customer satisfaction measurement, modeling, tracking, online qualitative research, omnibus research, and brand analytics.

Media Contact:
Paul Rubenstein, Ph.D.
President
Accelerant Research
704-206-8501
paulr@accelerantresearch.com
http://www.accelerantresearch.com/