Workers more hopeful on job security, earnings in 2011

Tuesday 21st December 2010 2 Comments

Workers have hopes of higher earnings and improved job security next year but for now they are finding new jobs hard to get, a survey shows.

The Westpac McDermott Miller employment confidence index edged higher in the December quarter, to 103.5 from 102.6 in the September quarter, but was slightly lower than the 104.3 at the same time a year ago. An index above 100 indicates more optimists than pessimists.

Westpac senior economist Donna Purdue said economic confidence had ticked higher, mainly due to hopes of better employment conditions in 2011, specifically higher earnings and improved job security.

"However, employees are still extremely downbeat about current employment conditions. That continues to weigh heavily on the overall level of confidence, and is a little concerning given that we are 18 months down the path of recovery," she said.

The major issue for employees for now was job availability, with a net 63.4% of respondents saying jobs were hard to get, up from a net 61.3% in September, but close to the high of a net 66.5% reached in September last year.

"We find it hard to reconcile the overwhelmingly negative response to this question with the positive developments in the labour market over the past year, but the message is clear: the jobs market remains tough, and possibly even tougher than we thought heading into 2011," Purdue said.

Current earnings were assessed as unchanged over the quarter, with a net 21.4% of employees saying they were earning more than a year ago.

Employees' high level of optimism about the future had been maintained, and even improved through the quarter, with the employment expectations index rising from 117.8 to 119.8.

The biggest upward influence on confidence in the December quarter was an increase in earnings expectations for the coming year, Purdue said.

A net 40.3% of respondents said they expected to be earning more in a year's time, up from a net 34.6% in September, and the highest since the September 2008 quarter.

Perceived job security also improved, rising from a net 7.2% in September to a net 11%, although that remained below the long run average of a net 15.6%.

A net 8.2% of respondents said they expected job opportunities to be plentiful this time next year, down from 11.3% in the September quarter.

NZPA

Comments from our readers

On 22 December 2010 at 9:16 am John Henton said:

Jobs are extremely difficult to secure. My career as a General Manager running newspapers with a distingquished record of success in sales and marketing was disestablished in Dec 2008. Since then I have applied for 100's of management roles were I usually contest candidiacy with over 100 applicant. I've applied for lesser responsible roles as well and there I'm consisttently come up against "Your to experienced". I'm not at all suprised by the 63.4% negative response saying jobs are hard to get. They're almost impossible to get! Perhaps 2011 will open up?

On 22 December 2010 at 10:31 am Antonia said:

I was quite surprised about attitudes towards job availability as over the last few months I've seen many more jobs listed - at least within Marketing. I've recently applied for a few Marketing Communications positions to move up from my current position and haven't had problems getting interviews for the next year. Would be interesting to know what the demographics were of the people surveyed so you can see which areas it would be difficult to get a job in.