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California Employment Report: Employee Confidence Index Drops; Fewer Workers Confident About Their Personal Employment SituationPresented by Spherion Corporation
LOS ANGELES, Calif., July 18, 2008
The California Employee Confidence Index dropped 5.8 points to 40.4 in June, reaching a new survey low, according to the latest Spherion® Employment Report. The monthly survey of California workers, conducted by Harris Interactive® on behalf of Spherion Corporation (NYSE:SFN), shows that although more workers feel uncertain about their personal employment situation, one-third (33 %) of workers are likely to look for a new job in the next year. Results from the California Employment Report:
-64% of workers believe it is unlikely they will lose their job in the next year compared to 73% in May.
Less than half (48%) of workers surveyed are confident in the future of their current employer, down 19 percentage points from the previous month -One-third (33%) of workers say they are likely to make a job transition in the next year, representing a four percentage point decrease from May. -Three-quarters (75%) of workers believe the economy is getting weaker, showing a three percentage point increase from the previous month.
As we had anticipated, economic uncertainty remains a widespread issue in California and seems to have influenced the drop in this month's Index, explained Lauren Steel, territory vice president for Spherion. The rising costs of fuel and food prices appear to have California workers feeling a substantial pinch in their wallets. However, with three-quarters of California workers reporting that they either feel neutral or confident about their ability to find a new job, employers looking to retain their talent may want to consider exploring alternative work schedules to help provide relief to their economically burdened employees. Forward-thinking employers are already in the process of implementing condensed work weeks and offering telecommuting options to their employees in an effort to help offset some of their employees' concerns.
About the Spherion Employment Report
As part of the Spherion® Emerging Workforce® Series of employment surveys, the monthly Spherion Employment Report provides a snapshot of the latest workforce trends across the country and is issued in conjunction with state and national labor market releases. Three key indices are measured: the Spherion Job Security Index, which captures how likely respondents think it is that they will lose their job or that their job will be eliminated in the next 12 months; the Spherion Job Transition Index, which captures how likely respondents are to look for a new job in the next 12 months and the Employee Confidence Index that measures employees' overall confidence in the economy, their employer and their ability to find other employment. The Employee Confidence Index is calculated from the results of four components that reflect these aspects of employee confidence. For each component item a 'score' is calculated by taking the difference of the percentage of positive responses and the percentage of negative responses. These four scores are then averaged to indicate an overall level of employee confidence, with each score ranking on a scale from 0 (no confidence) to 100 (complete confidence). A reading above 50 indicates a positive confidence level.
Methodology
The June 2008 Spherion® Employment Report was conducted online within the United by Harris Interactive on behalf of Spherion Corporation between June 2 and 4 and June 10 and 12, 2008 among a U.S. sample of 2,589 employed adults, aged 18 years and older, of whom 162 are employed in California (for May 2008 n=212). Results were weighted as needed for age, sex, race/ethnicity, income, education and region. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents? propensity to be online.
All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words "margin of error" as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates.
These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.
Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the U.S. adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to be invited to participate in the Harris Interactive online research panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.
About Spherion
Spherion Corporation (NYSE: SFN) is a leading recruiting and staffing company that provides integrated solutions to meet the evolving needs of companies and job candidates. As an industry pioneer for more than 60 years, Spherion has sourced, screened and placed millions of individuals in temporary, temp-to-hire and full-time jobs. Positions range from administrative and light industrial to a host of professions that include accounting/finance, information technology, engineering, manufacturing, legal, human resources and sales/marketing.
With approximately 700 locations in the United States and Canada, Spherion delivers innovative workforce solutions that improve business performance. Spherion provides its services to more than 8,000 customers, from Fortune 500 companies to a wide range of small and mid-size organizations. Employing more than 300,000 people annually through its network, Spherion is one of North America's largest employers. To learn more, visit http://www.spherion.com/. For up- to-date career tips and trends, visit Spherion's career blog, The Big Time(SM), at http://www.spherion.com/careerblog.
About Harris Interactive
Harris Interactive is one of the largest and fastest-growing market research firms in the world. The company provides innovative research, insights and strategic advice to help its clients make more confident decisions which lead to measurable and enduring improvements in performance. Harris Interactive is widely known for The Harris Poll®, one of the longest running, independent opinion polls and for pioneering online market research methods. The company has built what it believes to be the world's largest panel of survey respondents, the Harris Poll Online. Harris Interactive serves clients worldwide through its North American, European and Asian offices, and through a global network of independent market research firms. More information about Harris Interactive may be obtained at http://www.harrisinteractive.com/.
To become a member of the Harris Poll Online and be invited to participate in online surveys, register at http://www.harrispollonline.com/.
SOURCE: Spherion Corporation
CONTACT: Dona Holmberg, Spherion Corporation, (310) 443-9580,
donaholmberg@spherion.com
Web site: http://www.spherion.com/
If you would like to contribute an article, please contact Dona Holmberg, Vice Chair
Updated 7/23/08
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