SAUSALITO, CA, Apr 02 (MARKET WIRE) —
The jobs outlook may be brightening, but a new survey shows employers are
still taking actions that impact employee sentiment. In the first
quarter, nearly half (48 percent) of employees(1) reported their
employers made changes to the number of staff, organizational structure,
compensation and benefits or other perks in the past six months,
according to the Q1 Glassdoor.com(R) Employment Confidence Survey of
2,315 U.S. adults conducted on its behalf by Harris Interactive(R)(2).
More than half (55 percent) of these employees said their company made
changes or reduced compensation in the past six months, up from 50
percent in the fourth quarter, and 17 percent reported their company
restructured their job or made their position redundant, up from 10
percent last quarter. Fewer reported layoffs/plans to have layoffs (47
percent) and hiring freezes (34 percent) than last quarter when rates
were 57 percent and 43 percent respectively.

Employees also reported fewer concerns about future layoffs and growing
confidence in their own job security and job market but reveal they are
still willing to make concessions. In fact, three in four employees,
including those self employed, (76 percent) report they are willing to
take a pay cut if faced with losing their job, and nearly nine in 10 (88
percent) of those currently unemployed jobseekers would accept less than
they originally wanted to land a new job. How low are employees and
jobseekers willing to go? While age and income are contributing factors,
nearly half (48 percent) of employees, including those self employed,
said they would accept less than 10 percent reduction in pay to keep
their job whereas 41 percent of those currently unemployed but looking
are willing to accept between 10 and 29 percent less than they want.

The depth of pay cuts employees and jobseekers are willing to take to
keep their job is broken out as follows (percentages may not equal 100
due to rounding):

Level of pay cut Employees/Self-employed Unemployed jobseekers
less than a 5% 25% 13%
between 5% and 9% 23% 21%
between 10% and 19% 18% 26%
between 20% and 29% 6% 15%
more than 30% 5% 14%
not willing to take any
cut in pay 24% 12%

However, data indicates employers should be cautious that employees
may view such pay cut concessions as temporary. In the first quarter,
more than one in four (28 percent) employees whose company has made
structural, pay or benefits changes in the past six months reported their
own compensation was reduced, and these employees are more likely to
expect a raise (69 percent) once the economy recovers than employees who
did not have their compensation reduced by their company during the same
period (48 percent).

As signs of economic recovery continue, employers should pay attention to
other employee job-related expectations. Should the economy and/or
unemployment return to pre-recession levels, more than half (57 percent)
of employees say they expect a raise, bonus or promotion and one in five
(21 percent) expect to look for a new job, which has risen slightly from
the third quarter of 2009. Other rebound expectations include:

51% a raise in base salary
27% hiring freezes to be lifted/more employees to be hired
23% health benefits/workplace perks that have been taken away to be
restored
22% a bonus
21% look for a new job

“While we’re seeing rising confidence among employees in their own
job security and the job market, it’s not surprising so many people are
still willing to take pay cuts to keep or get jobs given the recent
history of record-high unemployment and what they have seen their friends
and co-workers experience over the last two years,” said Rusty Rueff,
Glassdoor.com career and workplace expert, who has run global HR
departments at Electronic Arts and PepsiCo before co-authoring Talent
Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business. “As employees
start to feel better about the future, employers need to have their
finger on the pulse of employee expectations and attempt to bridge gaps
in the realities of today’s ‘new normal’ now, not later. Even though most
people are willing to take a pay cut to keep their job today, our data
indicates they will likely expect a reinstatement of pay or raise once
the market improves if not look for a new job altogether.”

The quarterly survey measures four key indicators of employee confidence
in the areas of job security, salary expectations, re-hire probability
and company outlook. The survey also tracks reported employer actions
during the past six months. A more detailed summary with tables can be
found at http://www.glassdoor.com/press. Highlights for the first quarter
2010 survey are below:

Job Security: Layoff Concerns Lowest since December 2008 for Self,
Co-workers
Less than one in five (18 percent) employees are concerned
they could be laid off in the next six months, a rate that has fallen for
the fifth consecutive quarter and is down from 20 percent last quarter
and 26 percent in the year-ago quarter. Employees are also less concerned
their co-workers will lose their jobs in the next six months — less than
one third (32 percent) note fears their counterparts could be laid off, a
decline from 39 percent last quarter and 44 percent in the first quarter
of 2009.

Job Market: Confidence in Finding a Job Edges Up Among Employed;
Unemployed Still Less Optimistic
Should they lose their current job, 38
percent of employees, including those self-employed, believe they would
be able to find a job that matches their experience and compensation
levels in the next six months as compared to just 30 percent of those who
believe it’s unlikely. This is an increase from last quarter when more
employees (and those self employed) felt finding a job matched to their
experience and compensation was unlikely (38 percent) than likely (33
percent). Of unemployed jobseekers, less than one-third (30 percent)
think it is likely they will be employed in six months in a job matched
to their experience and compensation level, while 31 percent think it is
unlikely. Older adults have less confidence in their ability to get hired
in this market compared to younger workers. For example, nearly twice as
many older employees, including those self employed who are 55+ (39
percent) think it is unlikely they could find comparable position and pay
in the next six months than their younger counterparts 18-34 (20
percent).

Salary Expectations: More than One-third expect Pay Increases; Women Less
Likely Than Men
More than one-third (36 percent) of employees said they
expect a pay raise or cost of living increase in the next 12 months,
which is unchanged from the fourth quarter. Almost half of women (45
percent) report they do not expect a raise in the next 12 months,
compared to 38 percent of men. However, more Southerners (40 percent)
expect a salary increase than those in the West (27 percent).

Company Outlook: Nine in 10 Expect their Company’s Six-Month Outlook to
Improve or Stay the Same
Employees (including those self-employed)
continue to be confident in their company’s outlook: only one in 10 (10
percent) expect their company’s outlook to get worse in the next six
months, while 41 percent expect it to get better and 50 percent expect it
will remain the same. This remains largely unchanged over the past two
quarters.

For more details and methodology of the survey, see the Glassdoor.com
Confidence Survey Summary and Methodology,

http://www.glassdoor.com/press/.

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) Harris Interactive(R) fielded the Q1 Employment Confidence
study on behalf of Glassdoor.com from March 19-23, 2010 via the
QuickQuery(SM) online omnibus service among 2,315 adults ages 18 and
older of whom 1,225 were employed full time/part-time and 210 were
unemployed but looking. Data were weighted using propensity score
weighting to be representative of the total U.S. adult population on the
basis of region, age within gender, education, household income,
race/ethnicity, and propensity to be online. No estimates of theoretical
sampling error can be calculated.

About Glassdoor.com
Glassdoor.com is a career and workplace community
where anyone can find and anonymously share real-time reviews, ratings
and salary details about specific jobs or interviews for specific
employers — for free. Glassdoor enables employees, job seekers,
employers and recruiters to simultaneously see — for the first time –
unedited employee and job candidate opinions about a company’s work
environment along with details of pay, benefits, CEO approval ratings and
job interview reviews. Glassdoor was founded in 2007 and launched its
public beta in June 2008. Headquartered in Sausalito, Calif., Glassdoor
was founded by Richard Barton, Robert Hohman and Tim Besse and has raised
$9.5 million from its founders, Benchmark Capital and Sutter Hill
Ventures.

About Harris Interactive
Harris Interactive is one of the world’s
leading custom market research firms, leveraging research, technology,
and business acumen to transform relevant insight into actionable
foresight. Known widely for the Harris Poll and for pioneering innovative
research methodologies, Harris offers expertise in a wide range of
industries including healthcare, technology, public affairs, energy,
telecommunications, financial services, insurance, media, retail,
restaurant, and consumer package goods. Serving clients in over 215
countries and territories through our North American, European, and Asian
offices and a network of independent market research firms, Harris
specializes in delivering research solutions that help us — and our
clients — stay ahead of what’s next. For more information, please visit
www.harrisinteractive.com.

Copyright 2010, Market Wire, All rights reserved.