Employee confidence concerning the job market is better than it has been in years according to Glassdoor’s Q1 2016 Employment Confidence Survey. What could that mean for your talent pipeline?
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Two major factors come into play when employees are considering how confident they feel about their jobs. First, the 2016 presidential election is in full swing. Second, the economic market has been a roller-coaster ride for some time now. Glassdoor® recently took the time produce their Q1 16 Employment Confidence Survey, organized by Harris Poll.
The poll was conducted among 2,015 American adults aged 18+, and it takes a look at employee confidence during the first quarter concerning topics like the job market, job security, pay raises, and future business outlook. The study has found that Americans feel confident in these areas, especially when compared with employee sentiment in early 2009 during the Great Recession.
The Glassdoor Employment Confidence Survey monitors four key indicators of employee confidence: job market optimism/rehire probability, pay raise expectations, job security, and business outlook.
Job Market Confidence Near Peak Level: More than half (53%) of American employees (including those self-employed) believe if they lost their job they would be able to find a new job matched to their experience and current compensation levels in the next 6 months. This reveals the second-highest confidence in the U.S. job market since Glassdoor began its survey in 2009, up 14 percentage points from 39% in the 1st quarter 2009. Job market confidence is down 1 percentage point from the 3rd quarter 2015 (54%).
Americans Remain Confident in Pay Raises: Nearly half (46%) of U.S. employees expect a pay raise or cost-of-living increase in the next 12 months, which is up 10 percentage points from 36% in the 1st quarter 2009. Pay raise confidence is down 4 percentage points from the 3rd quarter 2015 (50%).
Job Security Confidence Soars: U.S. employees’ concerns about being laid off have reached a new low since the 4th quarter 2014 (13%). Today, 14% of employees report they are concerned they could be laid off in the next 6 months compared to its peak, 26% in the 1st quarter 2009. Job security confidence is down 1 percentage point from the 3rd quarter 2015 (15%).
Business Outlook Optimism Dropping: Nearly half (42%) of employees believe their company’s future business outlook will improve in the next 6 months. When asked if they expected their companies’ outlooks to get better, worse, or stay the same in the next 6 months, employees reported a record high confidence of 51% in Q2 2015 that their business outlook will improve.
We saw this optimism decline in Q3 2015 to 48% and decline even more during Q1 2016 (42%), the start of an election year. Fifty percent believe their company’s business outlook will stay the same, up 4 percentage points from 46% in the 3rd quarter 2015, while 7% believe it will get worse, up 1 percentage point from the 3rd quarter 2015 (6%).
“In 2009 our country faced its worst recession in years and uncertainty made employment confidence weak,” said Rusty Rueff, Glassdoor career and workplace expert. “Today, employee confidence around the job market, job security and likelihood of a pay raise is among the highest it’s been in the past seven years. We’ll keep an eye on employee confidence around employers’ future business outlook as recent market uncertainty could be impacting employee optimism related to company performance.”
Tomorrow we’ll take a look at some of the implications of this survey when it comes to recruiting.