Poll: 59% confident of job security — 11% fear layoff within a year

The latest data from an annual Gallup survey shows that 11% of Americans believe they might lose their job within the next 12 months but 59% of Americans feel they are “not at all likely” to lose their job.

The 11% that thinks it is “very” or “fairly likely” they will lose their job is up from 8% in 2017, according to Gallup.

In the survey, conducted by telephone interviews in early April 2018, Gallup asked, “thinking about the next 12 months, how likely do you think it is that you will lose your job or be laid off — is it very likely, fairly likely, not too likely or not at all likely?”

Fifty-nine percent said “not all likely”; 29% said “not too likely”; and 11 percent said “very/fairly likely.”

Gallup has asked this question every April since 2012 and has looked at the likelihood of being laid off 31 times since 1975.

“The highest percentage of workers saying they were very or fairly likely to be laid off — 21% — occurred in April 2010, the first time the question was asked after the Great Recession of 2007-2009,” said the survey group. “That poll also registered the lowest percentage — 38% — saying they were not at all likely to lose their jobs. At that point, the unemployment rate was 9.9%.”

Today, the national unemployment rate is 4.1%, the lowest it has been since December 2000 and, prior to December 1999 the lowest since January 1970, nearly half a century ago.

Gallup noted that people “with annual household incomes of less than $30,000 are significantly less likely than those in higher income brackets to have total confidence in holding their jobs…. Those with a college degree had been slightly more likely to have total confidence in their job security from 2010 through 2016, but are now more likely to be totally confident than those without a degree.”

In conclusion, the survey group said, “Some might yearn for the good old days of the 1970s, when more than 60% were totally confident about their job security even when unemployment was significantly higher than it is today.

“But with Americans being told on a regular basis that job security is a thing of the past, both employers and employees can be heartened that once again, a solid majority [59%] of U.S. workers have total confidence that they will not have to be searching for a new job within the next year.”

(Courtesy of CNSNews.com)