u.s. employee confidence index heats up leading up to friday’s jobs report
back to overviewWhile U.S. second quarter growth and hiring outlooks remain sluggish, employees are surprisingly more upbeat about their personal employment situation.
NEW YORK, 08.02.12 – Randstad’s Employee Confidence Index increased by 1.1 points to 52.2 in July after declining for three consecutive months. Compared to this time last year, the Index is measuring 4.4 points higher and still remains above the positive confidence threshold of 50.
"Similarly to the U.S. Consumer Confidence Index rising for the first time in months, our index also ticked up a bit,” said Joanie Ruge, senior vice president and chief employment analyst for Randstad U.S. “Our report suggests that workers believe in their abilities to not only find a new job if they had to, but nearly 40 percent are likely to do so. While many employers remain cautious about making full-time hires, temporary or contract hiring, continues to be of interest. In fact, many employers who remain reluctant to add permanent staff are re-evaluating their workforce to determine the right mix of talent moving forward. Even though economists still expect U.S. growth to occur, many point towards sustainability at this point. All eyes are certainly on tomorrow’s jobs report."
Look Inside the Report
Employee Confidence Increases in July:
- The Employee Confidence Index was up by 1.1 points in July, registering at 52.2, after three consecutive months of decline.
Employees Unconvinced About Economic Recovery:
- With fewer than a quarter of employees indicating their optimism for an improving economy, others are split on whether the economy is staying the same (38 percent) or getting worse (39 percent).
Women Confident in Different Ways than Men:
- Women indicate more confidence in the future of their current employer at 63 percent versus men (55 percent).
- Women overall were less confident in their ability to find a new job (41 percent) than men (46 percent).
- Seventy-four percent of both men and women say it is not likely they will lose their jobs.
- Men (42 percent) are more likely then women (34 percent) to look for a new job in the next 12 months.
U.S. Workers Confident in Job Security and Company:
- In July, employees’ confidence in the security of their current job continued to remain strong with an increase of three percentage points to 74 percent.
- Despite the gloomy attitude around the economy, 59 percent of employees are confident in the future of their employers.
Methodology
This survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of Randstad from July 11-13, 2012 among 1,248 employed U.S. adults, aged 18 years and older. The survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. Results were weighted as needed for age, sex, race/ethnicity, income, education, and region. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.
All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words “margin of error” as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.
Respondents for this survey were selected from among individuals who agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data has been weighted to reflect the composition of the U.S. adult population. As the sample is based on those who agreed to be invited to participate in the Harris Interactive online research panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.
The Randstad US Employee Confidence Index has measured workforce trends across the country since 2004. For more info, contact Lesly Cardec, PR Director via email or 800.422.3819.