SAUSALITO -- Employees are less worried about the prospect of layoffs, with only 15 percent currently concerned about being laid off within in the next six months, compared to 22 percent in the previous quarter -- the lowest level since the fourth quarter of 2008, according to a survey by Sausalito-based Glassdoor.
The Q3 2013 Employment Confidence Survey (glassdoor.com/press/surveys), conducted online by Harris Interactive, evaluates four key indicators of employee confidence: job security, business outlook, job market optimism and re-hire probability and salary expectations.
"This is the first quarter since the Great Recession where we are finally seeing signs of stabilization within the job market, and as a result, employees are feeling more secure in their current jobs than they have in several years," said Rusty Rueff, a Glassdoor career and workplace expert and corporate board member."The signal is clear for both companies and employees that we must remain calm, carry on, and stay focused on doing our best to help move the economy forward."
As layoff concerns have subsided among employees, so, too, has the number of employees reporting their employer initiated large-scale hiring, with 18 percent doing so, a 15-percent drop since last quarter and a low since Q2 2011.
The decline in large-scale hiring and expected layoffs may reinforce why employees' optimism in their company's business outlook in the next six months remains relatively unchanged, according to Glassdoor. More than half of surveyed employees, or 51 percent, believe their company's business outlook will stay the same in the next six months, 40 percent believe it will get better and nine percent believe it will get worse, the survey found.
Despite the increased confidence, job market optimism remained unchanged from the second quarter of 2013 to the third quarter, with 43 percent of employees saying that if they lost their current job, they could find a job matched to current compensation and experience levels within the next six months.
Among unemployed job seekers, only 38 percent believe they could find a job within the next six months, showing little movement in that realm, according to Glassdoor.
As for salary expectations, fewer employees, some 37 percent, said they expected a pay raise or cost-of-living increase in the next 12 months, down three points since last quarter. Employees with a total household income of $75,000 or more per year are more optimistic, with 44 percent saying they anticipate pay raise or cost-of-living increase in the next 12 months, compared to 28 percent for those who earn a total household income of less than $35,000 per year.
However, when it comes to additions employers made during the past six months, more employees, about 76 percent, reported new perks, such as the option to work remotely, dress casually, work flexible hours, and/or receive new stock, a high since Q2 2011 and up 29 percentage points since last quarter.
The survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Interactive on behalf of Glassdoor from Sept. 13--17 among 2,044 adults ages 18 and older, of whom 891 are employed full- or part-time.
