60% US employees laid off last year found new jobs: survey

A significant number of employees in the US who were given pink slips last year have landed new jobs,a survey says.

A significant number of employees in the US who were given pink slips last year have landed new jobs,mostly in the new fields,says a survey.

According to a survey by job portal CareerBuilder,60 per cent of respondents who were laid off in the last year said they had found new jobs,with 88 per cent of them finding full-time positions.

The survey was conducted across the US by Harris Interactive,on behalf of CareerBuilder,between May and June among 809 employees,laid off from full-time jobs last year.

Of those workers who are still searching for new opportunities,56 per cent said they were nervous about returning to work after an extended period of unemployment.

On why they felt anxious about re-entering the workforce,50 per cent of the respondents said that it was the pressure to prove themselves. About 40 per cent pointed to the fear of the unknown situation,and 21 per cent cited new technologies with which they might not be familiar.

“We need to do a better job as a nation to help workers identify jobs that are in demand today and are projected to grow in the future.

“We have a growing skills gap and the need to get millions of Americans back to work. As the economy recovers,we need to focus on retraining and ‘re-skilling’ workers to help them move to new fields with a greater number of

opportunities,” CareerBuilder President (North America) Brent Rasmussen said.

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Interestingly,the survey said that more than half of the respondents (54 per cent) were working in entirely different fields than their previous jobs.

Also,the majority of those who found new jobs reported a similar or higher pay than their previous position.

The survey further said that 45 per cent reported taking a pay cut,an improvement from 47 per cent last year,while 27 per cent of employees surveyed found jobs with higher pay,up from 22 per cent last year.

The survey said that 36 per cent of the respondents relocated to a different city. Among those who had not found jobs yet,about one in four said they were considering starting their own businesses.