September 29, 2010

How do you like your job security now?

• Post a comment |
• E-mail |
• Print
• • Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

No doubt you saw the reports earlier this month that the recession officially ended in June 2009. Like many Americans, you may have laughed, scoffed, or yelled at the media outlet from which you gleaned this nugget of information -- especially if you're unemployed or hanging onto your current job by your fingernails.

[Flickr photo by Scintt]

Of course, many U.S. workers are feeling more secure in their job these days. A new survey commissioned by the website SnagAJob.com found that 40 percent of U.S. adults polled said they're comfortable with their job security, compared with 29 percent in 2009. What's more, of the 1,000 currently employed workers polled, just 35 percent said they were worried about job security, down from more than 50 percent in 2009.

Among the other findings of SnagAJob's fourth annual Labor Happiness Index, conducted by phone in June 2010:

• Twenty-seven percent of workers polled attributed their on-the-job happiness to personal satisfaction, 23 percent chalked up their workplace warm fuzzies to "feeling fortunate to have a job at all," 17 percent said flexibility at work kept them happy, and 15 percent stated that their paycheck was what kept a smile on their face. Overall, the female workers polled were happier with their job than their male counterparts. And not surprisingly, a majority of workers who said they felt less secure about their job than they did last year also said they were unhappy with their present position.
• When it comes to what SnagAJob refers to as "long-term job security," almost one in 10 workers (9 percent) cited their worry of being laid off as their top fret, three times the workers harboring this fear in the original survey back in 2007. But losing one's livelihood wasn't the biggest long-range worry of this year's survey respondents. Whether they'd be able to afford to retire or pay for their kids' college education was, with 38 percent of those polled naming such beefy expenses as their most pressing concern for the long term.
• Men are more worried about their future job security than women, with 11 percent of men polled citing this as a top concern, up from 4 percent in 2007. And nearly a quarter of all men polled named "families and how they will be cared for" as their leading long-range concern, up from 16 percent in 2007.  

Readers, how about you? If you're currently employed, are you feeling more or less secure in your job than you did a year ago? If you're currently looking for work, are you feeling better or worse about your job prospects?

Michelle Goodman is the author of "My So-Called Freelance Life" and "The Anti 9-to-5 Guide." E-mail Michelle at mgoodman@nwjobs.com

• Post a comment |
• E-mail |
• Print
• • Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

Read more
unemployment