Glassdoor Survey Reveals More Than Half of Employees Report Job Market Confidence -- a First in More Than 6 Years

MILL VALLEY, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/02/15 -- With more job growth and a decreasing unemployment rate in the U.S., employee(1) confidence in the job market has reached a new high. According to the Glassdoor Q2 2015 U.S. Employment Confidence Survey(2), the majority (52 percent) of employees (including those self-employed) report optimism in the job market, a new high and the first time this metric has reached or surpassed half of employees since this survey question was first asked in Q1 2009. Conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of Glassdoor, this survey evaluates four key indicators of employee confidence: job market optimism/re-hire probability, salary expectations, business outlook and job security.

Specifically, 52 percent of employees (including those self-employed) report confidence that if they lost their job, they would be able to find a job matched to their experience and current compensation levels in the next six months, up 4 percentage points since last quarter (48 percent). Of those unemployed but looking for work, rehire probability confidence is down 1 percentage point to 46 percent since last quarter (47 percent), but up 14 percentage points compared to last year (Q2 2014, 32 percent). In fact, employees (including those self-employed) aged 18-34 years old (65 percent) and aged 35-44 years old (60 percent) are significantly more optimistic in their ability to find a job when compared to employees aged 45-54 (40 percent) and 55-64 (38 percent).

As job market confidence grows among employees, so does their optimism to receive a pay raise. At the highest level since this survey question was first asked in Q4 2008, nearly half (47 percent) of employees say they expect to receive a pay raise or cost-of-living increase in the next 12 months, up slightly by 2 percentage points over last quarter (45 percent). Employees 35-44 years old (42 percent), 45-54 years old (42 percent) and 55-64 years old (44 percent) are significantly less likely to expect a pay raise in the next 12 months when compared to younger employees aged 18-34 (58 percent). Pay raise confidence continues to be slightly higher among men (50 percent) than women (42 percent).

This rise in pay raise expectations coincides with 61 percent of employees (who reported a positive change at their company in the past six months) reporting they were awarded new perks, new stock or other compensation over the last six months, up 10 percentage points since last quarter (51 percent).

"As we see consumer confidence and the economy surging, we also see job market confidence, expectations for a pay raise and business outlook optimism not only increasing, but hitting new highs, further supporting that we are currently in the best job seeker's market we've seen in a generation. High job market confidence creates new job opportunities, making it a better time than ever to job search," said Rusty Rueff, Glassdoor career and workplace expert. "Employers should be on alert that employees may be more willing to jump ship or ask for a pay raise, especially younger workers. This subset of employees will need special attention because, for the first time since they entered the workforce, they are feeling the effects of a very healthy job market. Extra attention on retention efforts will help reduce turnover."

When it comes to how employees feel their company's business will perform in the next six months, a majority (51 percent) of employees (including those self-employed) believe their company's business outlook will improve, a new high, up 4 percentage points since last quarter (47 percent), and the first time this metric has reached or surpassed half of employees, too. Forty-two percent of employees believe it will stay the same (neither get better nor worse), while 7 percent believe business will get worse.

Employees' concern about being laid off in the next six months edged up slightly by 1 percent over last quarter (16 percent) to 17 percent. However, fewer employees (24 percent) report concern over co-workers being laid off in the next six months, a 4 percentage point drop since last quarter (28 percent). More men (21 percent) than women (11 percent) are concerned about being laid off in the next six months.

SURVEY SUPPLEMENT & GRAPHICS AVAILABLE: For more details, including breakdowns of survey results by gender, income, geography and age as well as quarter-by-quarter results, please see the full U.S. Q2 2015 Glassdoor Employment Confidence Survey Supplement: http://www.glassdoor.com/press/surveys. To request the survey supplement, graphics and/or complete survey methodology, please contact pr [at] Glassdoor [dot] com.

Methodology (1) For the purposes of this study, "employees" were defined as U.S. adults 18+ employed full time and/or part time unless otherwise indicated. (2) The Q2 2015 survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Poll on behalf of Glassdoor from June 18-22, 2015 among 2,019 adults ages 18 and older, among which 1,147 are employed or unemployed but looking, 1,000 are employed (full-time, part-time or self-employed), 880 are full-time/part-time employees, and 147 are unemployed but looking. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact [email protected].

About Glassdoor Glassdoor is the most transparent jobs and recruiting marketplace that is changing how people search for jobs and how companies recruit top talent. Glassdoor combines free and anonymous reviews, ratings and salary content with job listings to help job seekers find the best jobs and address critical questions that come up during the job search, application, interview and negotiation phases of employment. For employers, Glassdoor offers recruiting and employer branding solutions to help attract high-quality candidates at a fraction of the cost of other channels. Glassdoor, which has more than 30 million members and content from more than 190 countries, operates one of the most popular job apps on iOS and Android. The company launched in 2008 and has raised approximately $160 million from Google Capital, Tiger Global Management, Benchmark, Battery Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures, DAG Ventures, Dragoneer Investment Group and others.

Glassdoor.com is a registered trademark of Glassdoor, Inc.

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Source: Glassdoor.com

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