The UK economy is showing strong signs of recovery and as a result of this one in three employees now feel confident about finding a new job within six months.
36 percent of employees fell confident about finding a new job according to a survey by jobs and careers marketplace, Glassdoor.
Confidence is highest in 25-34 year olds (46 percent), but falls to less than a quarter, to 24 percent, among those aged 55 and above. Those who are unemployed are also feeling a boost in confidence about their prospect of finding work in the next six months (36 percent).
The increase in job seeker confidence is supported by improved job security in the workplace. The number of employees worried about redundancy has fallen to from 35 percent to 27 percent in the last three months. Concern for co-workers job security has increased slightly to 37 percent, but the figure has fallen by six percentage points over the last quarter.
Jon Ingham, Glassdoor career and workplace expert comments:
“Recent reports of a brighter economic outlook in the UK are fully reflected in our employee confidence survey this quarter. Employees are starting to feel far more confident with both their current job and the prospect of finding a new one. This has been a long time coming but it seems the job market has finally turned a corner.”
“Employers have had the upper hand in recent years, offering little in the way of salary increases and promotion. They have been safe in the knowledge that the job market has made it difficult for employees to move on. However, the power is starting to shift which is great for those employees that have been forced to put their career progression on hold over the past few years as they now have greater bargaining power. Competition is high in the job market but the important thing is that employees are moving and this increased level of activity creates more opportunities.”
The Glassdoor UK Employment Confidence Survey, conducted online by Harris Interactive among UK employees, monitors four key indicators in employee confidence; job security, salary expectations, job market optimism/re-hire probability and business outlook optimism.
Employee expectations of pay rises within the next six months have remained relatively stable at around 35 percent for the past year. When it comes of gender and pay, it would seem men (40 percent) are more optimistic than women (30 percent) about receiving a pay rise.
For employees who saw negative changes within their company take place, 30 percent say their employer reduced pay or bonuses compared to 36 percent in the previous quarter. 12 percent of participants say their company had talked off a pay freeze in the last six months, which has dropped from 19 percent in the previous year.
For employees who had witnessed positive changes in their company in the last quarter, 45 percent say that employers had awarded new company benefits, such as remote or flexible working. More than one in three (36 percent) of employees feel their organisations outlook will be better in the next six months.
Amie Filcher is an editorial assistant at HRreview.
