Confidence still high among US workers

Despite reported increases in layoffs during 2001, causing unemployment to rise to 4.5 percent, most employees remain bullish about their career paths and feel secure about their jobs, according to the "Right Career Confidence Index" released by Right Management Consultants.

The index is based on a random telephone survey of 1,000 full-time workers.

More than 90 percent of US workers polled were confident they will continue to hold their jobs in the coming year. Furthermore, 89 percent of US employees shrugged off the soft economy, and said they were confident they could readily secure a position with similar compensation at another firm if they were laid off.

The study also found that about 90 percent of respondents said they were likely to remain on their current career paths, and that 70 percent were confident they could advance within their current firms.

More than 70 percent of US workers said they believe their firms provide adequate training and development to help them further their careers.

As confident as workers seem to be, there still appears to be slippage: Right conducted similar research in 1998, and found 95 percent of workers were then confident about keeping their jobs.

(c) Copyright 2001. The Christian Science Monitor