Not only is America’s workforce more confident about the safety of their current position, those in the unemployed sector are far less pessimistic about their prospects for finding work within the next six months. The survey analysts believe that employment confidence translates into beneficial consumer spending increases.
The survey comes from Glassdoor, with the research assistance of Harris Interactive. It’s key finding comes in the light of a three-year low in people seeking unemployment benefits over a four-week period, and the number is 21%. That is the percentage of unemployed who think they will still be unemployed six months from now, and it’s down considerably from the 32% that said the same in Q3 2011. Glassdoor says it’s the best result they’ve had since beginning the report in 2008.
“The uptick in overall employee optimism is no surprise as employees are seeing fewer cutbacks at work and the unemployment rate recently declined to its lowest level in two and a half years,” said Rusty Rueff, Glassdoor career and workplace expert.
“Employee confidence is an important leading indicator to consumer confidence as how an employee feels about their job security, pay and the job market directly impacts their spending propensity. And while it’s good news that employee and unemployed job seeker pessimism has declined, it begs the question: have we turned the corner completely or are we simply at a high point on the roller coaster ride? Until we see several steady quarters of employee optimism, it’s a toss-up as to whether we’re out of the woods just yet.”
RBR-TVBR observation: Most of the surveys we are seeing of late point into positive territory, but only mildly so. While the economy still has lacked a catalytic event to spur rapid growth, it does seem to be edging in the right direction. But we aren’t there yet, and the economy is far from calamity-proof. Stay tuned.
