Glassdoor Blog » Layoffs

Employee & Job Seeker Confidence Stalls; Optimism Around Pay & Company Outlook Wanes

Glassdoor Team — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 09:00:51 +0000

As we enter the last few months of 2011, a cloud continues to hang over the job market. In the latest Glassdoor Employment Confidence Survey, there is a growing uncertainty among job seekers about their chances of landing a job and a decreasing number of employees feeling optimistic about their company’s outlook. These findings are just the tip of the iceberg in the third quarter report.

More than half of employed adults (56 percent) and most unemployed job seekers (91 percent) believe the recent market volatility in the economy will have an impact on their careers, jobs and the job search. Among employees, 30 percent think their career advancement will be slowed, 28 percent think their job will be in jeopardy and 25 percent think their bonus or pay/commission will be reduced.

The quarterly survey, conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Glassdoor, also revealed that expectations around pay raises remains flat this quarter. Slightly more than one-third (36%) of employees expect a pay raise in the next 12 months although optimism for a pay raise is higher among men (40%) than women (32%). That said, more employees (46%) do not expect a pay raise and 18 percent are unsure.

Interestingly, it’s not just pay raises that men are more optimistic about but also their company’s outlook – 38 percent of men are expecting their company’s outlook to improve, compared to 28 percent of women.

On a slightly more positive note, concerns over possible layoffs declined. Employees who are concerned they could be laid off in the next six months decreased by six points this quarter to 16 percent – the lowest level since the second quarter of 2010. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean employees are less concerned about layoffs overall as roughly one-third (32%) are concerned their coworkers could be laid off in the next six months, down two points from the second quarter.

But while layoff concerns may have slowed for those who have a job, unemployed job seekers report rising uncertainty as to whether they can land a job that meets their compensation and skills level in the next six months. More than one third (36 percent) indicate they are uncertain whether they will be able to find a job in the next six months – the highest level in five quarters – while 32% think it’s “unlikely” and 27% think it’s “likely.”

Are you looking for jobs? How do you feel about today’s job market? Do you feel like it’s getting better or worse?

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Interested in more insights into current employee and job seeker sentiment by age, location and gender? See the complete results for the Glassdoor Employment Confidence Survey.

Employee & Job Seeker Confidence Stalls; Optimism Around Pay & Company Outlook Wanes is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

5 Ways To Step Up Your Post Layoff Game

Debra Wheatman — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 18:59:55 +0000

Some of the more recent layoff announcements include a frightening 35,000 postal workers at USPS and 30,000 frustrated banking employees at Bank of America. While this seems dismal, keep in mind that mass layoffs have been going on for a long time; and even in a good economy, there were pink slips a plenty. The difference is that now candidates must clamor for the available jobs and compete with their peers like never before.

Sure, if you have been laid off, you could spend time licking your wounds and collecting unemployment, but that doesn’t seem like much fun and is not very productive. Certainly a layoff can be very nerve-wracking; but it can also be a great opportunity to change directions and get your career on a new path. Here are five ideas to help you beat the layoff blues and find a new job, or even a new profession.

1. Get training: If you have been laid off and are collecting unemployment, now may be the perfect time to get additional job skills by going back to school. Do your research to determine the best program and curriculum that will give you the most bang for your buck. Consider your personality traits, past experience, interests, and your time frame. One former administrator I know in the printing industry decided to go for a training program as an insurance agent and was able to successfully reinvent herself.

2. Start your own small business: Think outside of the box. Getting incorporated is a very simple process. Consider partnering with your former colleagues. Funding may be available via the Small Business Administration. Draft a solid business plan, define your goals and objectives, and set realistic targets. Necessity is the mother of invention. According to the Kaufman Foundation, a group dedicated to entrepreneurship, new businesses lead to innovations, create additional jobs, and produce wealth in society. If you have a good idea for a new business, why not go for it?

3. Maybe you are not one who likes to work for yourself: If this is the case, perhaps you want to consider looking for a position with a small business in addition to seeking jobs at larger corporations. Small businesses account for approximately 50% of all the private sector jobs in the United States. In fact, the SBA estimates that small businesses have generated 64% of net new jobs in the past 15 years. Why limit your job search to large firms? By conducting research on smaller area companies, you can uncover potential job opportunities. Try going to superpages.com to run a search or check with your local chamber of commerce for leads.

4. Polish off your career documents: When you are competing in the job market, you must present yourself in a compelling way. Your résumé and cover letter should entice hiring managers and recruiters to call you first. You have to convey your value in a way that makes you numero uno. Your presentation must be visually appealing; and your unique achievements and accomplishments have to be clearly spelled out. The initial impression you make can be the difference between getting an interview and getting passed over.

5. Step up your job search by enhancing your social media game: Job search 2.0 is here to stay. To be a part of it, you will want to update your LinkedIn profile and become active in online groups that can help you network to uncover potential job opportunities. Answering job postings is only a small fraction of the work you need to do to secure new employment in today’s job market. Consider uploading a VisualCV as well. While traditional resumes are still the mainstay of the job hunt, the digital résumé format has become increasingly popular. It allows you to display multidimensional information that a paper résumé cannot always fully convey.

I know it can be disheartening to face a layoff. If you are one of the many unemployed caught in a RIF (reduction in force), you owe it to yourself to brainstorm and find a way to advance your career despite the challenges. I hear from people every day that have lost their job and risen to the occasion. Instead of letting it get them down, they have used the layoff as a springboard to leap into the next phase of their career, and you can too.

5 Ways To Step Up Your Post Layoff Game is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Bank Of America Employees Sound Off Post Layoff News

Glassdoor Team — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:50:33 +0000

Earlier this month, Bank of America announced 30,000 jobs would be cut, in addition to the 6,000 jobs already cut in 2011. Since the mass layoffs news broke, employees at Bank of America have continued to turn to Glassdoor to share their perspective on what it’s like to walk the halls of the bank branches as well as in the corporate offices.

However, what may be confusing for some people is the fact that Bank of America continues to host job fairs in the wake of this announcement, including one recent job fair to hire 30 new bank employees at its Rancho Cordova, CA branch, according to news reports. So if you are considering a job at Bank of America and want to know what it’s really like to work at one of the nation’s largest banks, here are just a few recent highlights from employees dishing on what’s working well (Pros), what may need some improvement (Cons), and what advice they have to offer senior management.

Pros:

“If you do a great job and would like to get promoted, you will have many options,”- Bank of America Employee (location n/a)
“Good benefits and vacation package, lots of opportunities for advancement,” – Bank of America Claims Analyst (location n/a)
“Growth and knowledge, a great place to learn about finance,” – Bank of America Teller (New York, NY)
“Good benefits, good advancement opportunities, good hours,” – Bank of America Personal Banker (Desert Hot Springs, CA)

Cons:

“Reputation and customer dissatisfaction, negative media attention,” – Bank of America Employee (Kennesaw, GA)
“Company is undergoing a tremendous amount of change,” – Bank of America Employee (Charlotte, NC)
“Too much corporate politics that affects growth opportunities,” – Bank of America Banking Center Assistant Manager (Los Angeles, CA)
“Be prepared to have someone who never did your job observe and comment on what you say and do several times a week,” – Bank of America Personal Banker (St. Petersburg, FL)

Advice to Senior Management:

”Need to be more employee centered and rewarding when it comes to pay scale,” – Bank of America Banking Center Assistant Manager (location n/a)
“If the company does not care for its people, they will not care for the company,” – Bank of America Research Analyst (San Francisco, CA)
” Please motive and encourage team members,” – Bank of America Employee (location n/a)
“Many give their heart and soul and 85 hours and are never thanked appropriately compensated. Not good,” – Bank of America Consumer Market Manager (location n/a)

Do you work at Bank of America or any other financial institution? Share a company review. Want to learn more about Bank of America, including information on jobs?

Stay tuned for more monthly Glassdoor blog articles featuring what it’s really like to work on the inside at various companies

Bank Of America Employees Sound Off Post Layoff News is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Fear Of Layoffs On Wall Street Distracting Workers

FINS from The Wall Street Journal — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 21:00:09 +0000

The fear of layoffs on Wall Street is distracting workers and exacerbating an already dismal pace of business.

With pink slips fluttering on Wall Street and markets reeling from debt crises in Europe and the U.S., finance professionals are avoiding risky decisions, validating poor ideas to win favor with managers, jumping to more stable firms and steering clear of collaborative projects that could reflect well on co-workers – all in hope of surviving the next round of layoffs – according to bankers, finance consultants and recruiters.

“There’s a lot of people who have been on edge for the last three or four years, so burnout is a factor too,” said Alex Jakobson, a managing director at RogenSi, a consultancy based in Australia and New York that advises sales staff at several Wall Street firms.

Indeed, there is much for finance professionals to fear. A number of investment banks have cut employees in recent weeks as trading volumes slipped, in some cases to their lowest point in years. Many analysts believe Wall Street is in store for a series of large layoffs in the coming weeks. Richard Stein, a partner in Toronto-based executive search firm Caldwell Partners, said the tally of job cuts might hit 80,000 by the end of the year.

Those kinds of forecasts aren’t lost on Street staffers. Scorelogix LLC, a Delaware-based analytics company, compiles a job-security score based on economic indicators and proprietary layoff information. In bullish markets, the “fear index” for finance and insurance hovers around 140; in April it was at 51.7 and hasn’t been over 100 since the start of the crisis, implying that job-security in the industry has stayed relatively low since the subprime mortgage loan market imploded.

The erosion of teamwork and productivity that comes from layoff jitters is subtle and slow – but destructive. Consider Goldman Sachs, which is in the process of cutting about 1,000 workers, in part, because of poor trading results. An investment banker at the firm, who spoke on a condition of anonymity, said the sales and trading staff has been reluctant to offer attractive prices to corporate clients selling big blocks of stock.

Favorable prices on block trades help bankers win future underwriting business with corporate clients. But Goldman’s trading desks, facing layoffs, don’t want to take any more losses, even on trades that could win the firm lucrative business in the future.

Goldman declined to comment.

Batia Wiesenfeld, a management professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, said banks and brokerages tend to let months pass between when they announce layoffs and when they cut workers, a tedious period that cultivates brain-drain.

“As soon as there is a spectre of downsizing, it isn’t fun going to work and your best people get out,” Wiesenfeld said. “It takes enormous effort on the part of management and a real commitment to turn around that vicious cycle.”

Take the investment bank at UBS, for instance. At least 13 senior U.S. professionals defected from the unit in the first half of the year. In a July 27 earnings release, the company announced that it would proceed with an undisclosed number of layoffs that would result in “significant restructuring charges.” The Swiss firm’s pretax investment bank profit slid 71% from the year-earlier period.

UBS declined to comment, as did Barclays and Citigroup.

Peter Cappelli, director of the Center for Human Resources at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, noted that employee loyalty typically climbs during economic downturns, as workers gain appreciation for their status. However, the opposite has happened since the recent recession, which officially ended in June 2009, he said.

As companies cut benefits and heaped more responsibilities onto incumbent employees, Wall Street folks have tuned out or “froze up,” according to Cappelli, who cited studies on worker engagement.

“Wall Street is pretty bad” at downsizing, Cappelli said, “and I don’t think they’ve become any more sophisticated.”

Credit Suisse, which said it would cut about 2,000 jobs in coming weeks, said it tries to keep rumors in check by facilitating face-time between junior and senior employees. Some of its most promising junior employees dine with the executive board members three times a year.

“It helps to boost morale and recognizes individuals on an ongoing basis,” said spokeswoman Karen Laureano-Rikardsen.

Goldman, when it cuts workers beyond its annual culling of underperformers, tries to do so quickly and thoroughly to refocus surviving employees on their work, according to David Schwartz, former head of human relations for the firm’s investment bank in Europe.

“Still, even in a firm where people are professional as they are at Goldman, people do get distracted,” Schwartz said. “I’d walk onto a floor for a closed-door meeting with senior partners and the whole floor would stop working.” – Originally posted on FINS from the Wall Street Journal by Kyle Stock.

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Fear Of Layoffs On Wall Street Distracting Workers is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Job Seekers Making Lemonade Out Of Lemons

Debra Wheatman — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:00:51 +0000

What do the FAA, Cisco, Merck & Co., HSBC, and NASA have in common?

Sadly they are all organizations that are currently experiencing the pain of mass layoffs. It might surprise you to know that even during the most vibrant years of the dot com era, large corporations frequently had layoffs due to restructurings and reorganizations. In case you’re interested in getting the actual numbers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has a section of their website dedicated to tracking mass layoff statistics.

While most recent economic trends are not as encouraging as they could be, you will be pleased to know that according to a survey conducted by Harris in Q1 of 2011, three out of five workers who were laid off last year have gotten new jobs. Whether you are concerned about layoff or simply want to make a career transition, these numbers should bring renewed optimism.

The glass is more than half full. So what is it about the folks who got jobs that may have made the difference?

60% changed their career. If you find your current career path is limiting, re-invent yourself. Many candidates come to me in order to reposition their résumé so they can cast a wider net in the job market. By creating a résumé highlighting transferable skills, they have identified and secured new opportunities.
One third of those surveyed relocated. If you haven’t thought about moving, it may be time to consider this option. Even if you live on one side of town and have to move to the other side of town, it may be worth the sacrifice depending upon your unique situation. You will have to weigh the pros and cons of course; to the extent that you can, relocating for a better position might further expand your sphere of opportunities for future growth and development.
While 43% of those surveyed did take a pay cut, 23% actually got a pay increase. Losing your job to a layoff doesn’t necessarily mean you have to make less money, but being open to this possibility will give you more flexibility in the job market. What is it they say about one step back and two steps ahead? I have coached many people over the years that were laid off; they were happier in the long-term because it ultimately led to career advancement.

I think so much of how we approach a job search in a down economy has to do with attitude. I don’t deny that it can be a challenge to remain positive. Your proactive approach, focus on improving your personal brand, and doing all you can to present yourself to employers as a highly qualified candidate, will drive your ultimate success.

If you are unhappy in your current role, at risk for layoff, or have already left your most recent position, look at your situation as a challenge rather than a problem; you can rise to the occasion and be among the job winners. While making a career transition can be stressful, it might also be an opportunity to grow.

Lemonade anyone?

Job Seekers Making Lemonade Out Of Lemons is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Employees Report Growing Concern Over Job Security, Pay Raises And Job Market Amid Rising Job Satisfaction

Glassdoor Team — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 13:02:00 +0000

Not sure where the economy is headed and how your career path will look in the next 6 to 12 months? You’re not alone.

It’s no secret that the job market has remained tight over the past several months, and so it shouldn’t be too surprising to hear that employees are more pessimistic about their ability to get rehired within this the next six months should they lose their job. In addition, employee concerns about layoffs and pessimism about pay raises have risen to the highest levels since the height of the recession.

Today, Glassdoor released the latest Employment Confidence Survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, and found layoff concerns were up five percentage points this quarter, 22% up from 17% last quarter. In addition, concerns for co-workers layoffs increased four percentage points to 34%.

The survey also showed nearly half (48%) of employees report they do not expect a pay raise in the next 12 months, and nearly one third (31%) of employees and those self-employed believe it is unlikely they would find a job matched to their experience and compensation levels in the next six months.

However, when employees were asked about their overall job satisfaction, nearly one-third (30%) of employees reported they are more satisfied with their jobs today than one year ago yet one in four (26 percent) say their satisfaction is “worse.”

Last quarter, we noted that men’s expectations for pay raises and company outlook appeared to be improving. Again, we find that men’s optimism is climbing: 40% of men expect a pay increase in the coming year as compared to 32% of women. Also, men continue to be more optimistic regarding company outlook however the gap between genders is decreasing. In the second quarter, 42% of men noted they expect their company outlook to be better in the next six months compared to 36% of women. In the first quarter, 50% of men believed their company’s outlook would be better while 28% of women expect outlook to improve.

How do you feel about the job market? Are you looking for jobs more frequently than you did a year ago, worried that layoffs may hit again and/or do you expect to get a salary and compensation increase any time soon?

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Interested in more insights into current employee and job seeker sentiment by age, location and gender? See the complete results for the Glassdoor Employment Confidence Survey.

Employees Report Growing Concern Over Job Security, Pay Raises And Job Market Amid Rising Job Satisfaction is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

MySpace Employees Prepared For Massive Layoffs

Aol Jobs — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 16:00:31 +0000

The MySpace ship is sinking fast, and it’s estimated that about half of the employees who haven’t already abandoned it will be set adrift in the next few days. Parent company News Corp. is selling the social networking company — that it paid $580 million for in 2005 — to the highest bidder. It should bring an estimated $20 million to $30 million, according to AllThingsD, although bidding seems to be heating up, and the final price could be higher.

News Corp. reportedly wants the financial fiasco off its books for 2012, and is expected to close the deal by Thursday, June 30, when its fiscal year ends. News Corp. is expected to cut at least half of the MySpace staff in order to make for a leaner, meaner, more valuable deal. That would bring the staff of around 500 down to about 250.

The sale and corresponding layoffs have been pending for some time, and it makes you wonder why those 400 employees stuck it out for so long. After all, they’ve been fully aware that their jobs could be toast any minute now.

It’s standard operating procedure to offer some of the more valuable employees bonuses of varying degrees to stay on through certain rough periods. After all, the sale price would plummet even further if everyone jumped ship and there was no one left to run it. Others might have opted to stay on as long as possible in order to be vested with parent company News Corp., which is on firm financial footing even if MySpace isn’t.

Still others remain on the MySpace payroll simply because they haven’t been able to find a better gig yet — and many are actively looking. Sources say that very liberal, unspoken policies are being observed that allow current employees to take time off to look for other opportunities and go on interviews. Some are hardly even bothering to show up for work at all, according to one source who reports an office full of empty work stations.

Those are the employees who likely will be cut in the next few days and, knowing this, they’ve done their best to be prepared.

There are worse ways to go. Companies rise and fall, regardless of the economy. At least the employees at MySpace had plenty of advance warning. - By Lisa Johnson Mandell

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MySpace Employees Prepared For Massive Layoffs is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

One In Four Expect To Leave Job In Next 2 Years, Survey Shows

Glassdoor Team — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:20:11 +0000

The economy has been a rough ride for just about everyone and so it may not be too surprising to hear that many are planning to head for ‘greener’ pastures in less than two years.

We just released the results of our latest Employment Confidence Survey and found 73 percent of employees expect to leave their job for a new employer in the future, 38 percent expect to leave their job in less than three years, 28 percent expect to do so in less than two years and 14 percent expect to do so in less than one year.

This may be driven by rising optimism around the job market. Among full-time, part-time and/or self-employed adults, 40 percent say they believe it is “likely” they could find a new job matched to their experience and compensation levels within six months if they lost their current job – the highest level in six quarters.

That optimism doesn’t necessarily carry through employee confidence in what’s happening within companies. While employee confidence in the job market rose in the first quarter, confidence in future job security, pay raises and company outlook remained relatively flat. And while reports of layoffs are down, 40 percent of employees say their employers made changes to the number of staff, organizational structure, compensation and benefits, or other perks in the past six months. In fact, rates of pay cuts, hiring freezes and job restructurings rose in Q1 from recent quarters.

During the height of the Great Recession, men were hit pretty hard by layoffs and the term “mancession” kept bubbling up online and in conversations. This may be reversing as men now have a lower unemployment rate at 7.8% than the overall national average of 8.9%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Plus, the Glassdoor survey shows that male employees have higher confidence about pay and their company outlook than their female counterparts. For example, 39% of men expect to receive a pay raise in the next six months compared to 30% of women – overall average was 35%. This sentiment gap carries through to company outlook with half (50%) of men expecting their company outlook in the next six months to improve compared to just slightly more than one-fourth (28%) of women.

Where you live may also impact your confidence in your job security. For example, while 17% of workers are concerned they could be laid off in the next six months, concerns are highest among those living in the Northeast (26 percent) and lowest among those in the South (11 percent). More employees (30%) report concerns their coworkers could be laid off yet these concerns are highest among employees in the West (40 percent) and Northeast (38 percent), compared to the Midwest (29 percent) and South (18 percent).

Are you planning to leave your current job in the next year or two? What are your expectations around pay raises? Have concerns about layoffs dimisnished?

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Interested in more insights into current employee and job seeker sentiment by age, location and gender? See the complete results for the Glassdoor.com Employment Confidence Survey.

One In Four Expect To Leave Job In Next 2 Years, Survey Shows is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

How To Improve Your Chances Of Landing A Job After A Layoff

John Sumser — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 17:13:16 +0000

In his mid fifties, Sam took a job that was a little over his head working for a boss who was a real hard case. The situation got really uncomfortable for everyone involved. Both Sam and his boss lost their tempers a couple of times. Ultimately, Sam was offered the opportunity to leave before being fired.

All of the folks involved were very careful to never describe the job change as ‘being fired’ because that made it possible for Sam to collect unemployment insurance.

When the unemployment insurance ran out, Sam had to start to look for a job. His job search efforts were half hearted while there was a regular check coming in. A badly bruised ego and a tough economy put him in the difficult position of having to explain the firing and the employment gap.

When he finally got a hold of me, his panic was palpable.

I listened as he told me about how he’d screwed himself and created an impossible situation. He was certain that there was no way out. It wasn’t entirely my fault, he confided.

I gave him a few pieces of advice that you might consider if you have some ‘resume challenges’:

It’s Not How It Felt, It’s What It Looks Like
Getting terminated is a difficult thing. But, almost everyone in the economy has been terminated at some point in their career. The economy is a difficult horse to ride. I explained to my friend that while it may have felt like he’d been fired, he’d actually been laid off. Just because it feels like you were fired doesn’t mean that’s what you talk about in an interview.
Don’t Criticize Former Co-workers and Bosses
No matter how unfair things were when you parted ways, you will never get a job if you tell interviewers that ‘it wasn’t all my fault’. The business world values people who take complete personal responsibility while understanding that there are always two sides to a story
If You Have Lemons, Make Lemonade
“Wow, in my last job I made a couple of really difficult mistakes. Here’s what they were and here’s what I learned from them.” Most businesses really value the kind of adaptive people who can profit from their failings. Demonstrate that you know how to do that.
Never Sit Idle
Always have a project with goals and action items. If, somehow, you wind up with 18 months of empty time on your resume, look back at your endeavors and characterize them.

The point of the advice was simple. The act of finding and acquiring a job is a very public activity. Although it is reasonable to feel vulnerable in that process, how you feel is not really the issue. What matters is the way that you can characterize the things that you have been a part of.

How To Improve Your Chances Of Landing A Job After A Layoff is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Employees Mixed On Expectations For 2011 Raises; Reported Layoffs Fall Yet Cuts To Health And Dental Benefits Rise

Glassdoor Team — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 12:30:02 +0000

It’s no wonder employees and job seekers are having a hard time getting a handle on the state of the job market and whether our economy is showing any improvements. In November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that the unemployment rate creeped up from 9.6% to 9.8% only drop down to 9.4% in December. In parallel, the Conference Board reported that consumer confidence which had improved in November, decreased slightly in December.

To shed more light on what is influencing and impacting today’s workforce, Glassdoor has just released the results of its latest Employment Confidence Survey that reveals what those on the front lines, the employees and job seekers, are really seeing and feeling. Below are highlights showing where they are feeling optimistic, unsure and where they’re seeing changes at their company or in their job search.

Starting on a high note…

Employees More Confident in Job Security: After edging up in the third quarter, employee concerns about layoffs dropped in the fourth quarter. Employees concerned that they could be laid off in the next six months decreased to 17 percent, down three points from the third quarter and the year-ago quarter (20 percent). Employee concern for coworker layoffs also dipped slightly in the fourth quarter, with 31 percent reporting concerns their coworkers could be laid off in the next six months. This comes as December layoff reports reported by Challenger, Grey and Christmas fell to the lowest levels since 2002.

Company Outlook Improves: This past quarter, 42 percent of employees (including those self-employed) reported they expect their company outlook to get better in the next six months, up from 38 percent in the third quarter. Only nine percent expect their company’s outlook to get worse in the next six months, down from 13 percent in the third quarter, and 10 percent in the year-ago quarter. (Interestingly, those in the West are more pessimistic in this area: Twice as many employees in the West (15%) expect their company’s outlook to get worse in the next six months than those in the Northeast (7%) and South (7%).

But as career expert Rusty Rueff notes, “While there are some positive indicators in the labor market, employees are getting mixed signals from their employers and the market.” As a case in point, they survey also found:

Compensation Cuts Continue; Raise Outlook Pessimistic: While employees may feel more confident in keeping their jobs some may be paying the price to do so. One in four (27 percent) of those who reported a change at their company in the second half of 2010 said their own compensation (pay, bonus, etc.) was reduced during the same period. While just one-third (36 percent) expect a raise in the next 12 months. But as a silver lining, those who are bonus eligible, the majority (58 percent) expect a bonus – up one percentage point from the fourth quarter of 2008. We also found some variance between the sexes when it comes to bonuses. Of those bonus eligible, 62 percent of men expect a bonus compared to 53 percent of women.

Health and Dental Benefits Cutbacks Rising: While reports of layoffs and other actions declined or held steady in the fourth quarter, cuts in health and dental benefits are on the rise. This quarter, 28 percent of employees who cited at least some changes reported cuts to their health and dental benefit in the past six months, compared to 22 percent in the third quarter. It is worth noting however that employees did report fewer hiring freezes (24%), bonus cuts (10%) and cuts in perks and subsidies (12%) than in recent quarters.

Interested to read more from the Glassdoor Employment Confidence Report? You can find out more like how confident employees and unemployed are that they could find a job matched to their experience or compensation levels, and how the current state of employment is affecting people of varying ages, geographic locations, click here to read the full report.

What’s going on at your company? Did you get a bonus? Expect a raise? Are you feeling more optimistic, about the same or more pessimistic about the state of the job market?

Employees Mixed On Expectations For 2011 Raises; Reported Layoffs Fall Yet Cuts To Health And Dental Benefits Rise is a post from: Glassdoor Blog