Glassdoor Survey Reveals More Than One in Four UK Employees Fear Losing Their Job in Next Six Months

-- With Redundancy Fears Rising, More Than Half of Employees Believe Their Company's Business Outlook will Remain the Same in Next Six Months

LONDON, July 16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- A new survey by Glassdoor, a jobs and careers community, reveals that more than one in four (29 percent) UK employees^[1]fear losing their job in the next six months, an increase of eight percentage points from the Q114 survey. The Q2 2014 UK Employment Confidence Survey^[2], conducted online by Harris Interactive among UK employees, monitors four key indicators of employee confidence: job security, salary expectations, job market optimism/re-hire probability and business outlook optimism.

While 29 percent of employees are concerned that they themselves may be made redundant, even more, 36 percent, are also concerned about co-workers being made redundant. This figure has also risen since last quarter, by one percentage point. Employees in London are most concerned about losing their jobs, as half (49 percent) of employees are worried that they could be laid off, while more than half (57 percent) are concerned about co-workers being made redundant. Forty six percent of younger employees (those aged 16-24) are concerned about being made redundant themselves, the highest of any age group.

"The main reason that people are worrying about their jobs more may well be the increasing amount of restructuring that employees are seeing in the workplace. Regional job losses are still being widely reported and this is prompting employees to feel less secure," said Jon Ingham, Glassdoor career and workplace expert. "Employers will benefit from communicating openly about the specific circumstances of their own businesses, involving employees where there are issues and problems, and communicating confidently where there are already positive changes underway or there are signs of new opportunities for the future."

Only three in ten (29 percent) employees (employed full or part-time or self-employed) report optimism that they could find a job matched to their experience and current compensation levels in the next six months if they were to lose their current job, down one percentage point since last quarter. Full-time employees (32 percent) are more confident than part-time employees (20 percent) when it comes to finding a new job within six months.

As for how UK employees feel about how their company's business will perform in the next six months, most employees appear to be cautiously optimistic. More than half of employees (58 percent) believe their company's business outlook will stay the same, up two percentage points since last quarter. One in three (32 percent) employees (including those self-employed) believe their company's business outlook will improve in the next six months, also down two percentage points. Only one in ten (10 percent) believe it will get worse.

When it comes to how optimistic UK employees are surrounding a pay rise or cost-of-living increase, nearly two in five (37 percent) employees expect to receive one in the next 12 months, an increase of three percentage points. When comparing by type of employee, nearly one in four (23 percent) part-time employees expect a pay rise compared to two in five (41 percent) full time employees. Fifty seven percent of employees in the North East expect to receive a pay rise compared to just 26 percent in the South West, those being the most and least optimistic regions, respectively.

SURVEY SUPPLEMENT & GRAPHICS AVAILABLE: For more details, please see the full Q2 2014 Glassdoor UK Employment Confidence Survey Supplement: http://www.glassdoor.com/press/surveys. To request the survey supplement, graphics, breakdowns of survey results by age, gender and location and/or complete survey methodology, please contact pr [at] Glassdoor [dot] com.

Methodology

^[1] For the purposes of this study "employees" were defined as GB adults 16+ employed full time and/or part time unless otherwise indicated.

^[2]The Q2 2014 survey of 2,059 people was conducted online within Great Britain by Harris Interactive on behalf of Glassdoor from 17 - 23 June, 2014. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact pr@glassdoor.com.

About Glassdoor

Glassdoor is the world's most transparent career community that is changing the way people find jobs and companies recruit top talent. Founded in 2007, Glassdoor offers members the latest job listings, as well as access to proprietary employee-generated content including company-specific salary reports, ratings and reviews, CEO approval ratings, interview questions and reviews, office photos and more. Members also have the ability to see Inside Connections™ at particular companies via their Facebook network. In addition, thousands of employers are using Glassdoor for Employers to support their recruiting and employment branding efforts. Glassdoor, which won the 2013 Webby Award for Best Employment Site, is one of the most popular mobile job apps on iOS and Android platforms. Glassdoor is backed by Benchmark, Sutter Hill Ventures, Battery Ventures, DAG Ventures, Dragoneer Investment Group and Tiger Global. More information about Glassdoor can be found on the Glassdoor Blog, Glassdoor for Employers Blog and by following the company on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn.

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