Employee Confidence on the
Upswing in 2011

The SFN Group Employee Confidence Index increased 1.7 points to 52.8 in January. The Index, which measures workers’ confidence in their personal employment situation and optimism in the economic environment, reveals for the second consecutive month that more workers believe that the economy is getting stronger, with four in ten workers also reporting that they are likely to make a job change in the next 12 months.

“Employees have begun 2011 with greater confidence than we have seen in nearly a year,” says Roy Krause, president and CEO of SFN Group, Inc. “Following recent improvements in the stock and job markets, our Index reveals that workers are more secure in the economic recovery. As a result, many more workers are likely to make a job change. We believe many employees who were hesitant to entertain the idea of a job move in recent years, may now do so as they anticipate increased job creation in the months to come. As we speak with employers across the country, we maintain cautious optimism that more job creation is likely to take place in 2011. However, we may continue to see project and temporary positions becoming a larger part of the workforce.”

 

A Look Inside the Report:

Confidence in Macroeconomic Environment

• More U.S. workers believe the economy is getting stronger. Specifically, 29% believe so, an increase of four percentage points
  from December.
  
• Fifty-seven percent of workers believe there are fewer jobs available, dropping two points from last month.

Confidence in Personal Employment Situation

• Sixty-one percent of workers are confident in the future of their current employer, an increase of one percentage point from the
  previous month.
• Fewer workers are confident in their ability to find a new job, with 42% reporting confidence. This is a dip of one percentage point from December.

Job Security

• Fewer workers believe that it is unlikely they will lose their jobs in the next 12 months. Specifically, 71% believe is it is unlikely versus 72% in December.

Job Transition

• Four in ten workers are likely to look for a new job in the next 12 months, representing an increase of four percentage points from the previous month.

Confidence by Gender

• Men have higher levels of overall confidence than women. Specifically, the Employee Confidence Index stands at 54.9 for males and 50.3 for females.
• Men are also inclined to make a job transition, with 44% indicating the likelihood of doing so. On the other hand, 36% of women believe job change is likely.

Confidence by Age

• Workers age 18-34 expressed the highest levels of overall confidence among all age groups, with 34% believing that the economy is getting stronger.
• Workers age 18-34 are also the most likely among all age brackets to indicate a likelihood of making a job transition in the next 12 months, with more than half (56%)reporting a job change is likely. This represents a seven percentage point increase from December.

Confidence by Income

• Workers earning $75K+ are the most confident among all income brackets, with an Employee Confidence Index of 57.6.
• On the other end of the income spectrum, workers earning less than $35K are the least confident, with an Index of 44.8.

SFN Group is a strategic workforce solutions company that provides professional services and general staffing to help businesses more effectively source, deploy and manage people and the work they do. As an industry pioneer, SFN Group has sourced, screened and placed millions of individuals in temporary, temp-to-hire and full-time jobs for more than 60 years.