Gallup International’s Voice of the PeopleTM End of the Year Survey found that one in four working world citizens (24%) think there is a chance they may become unemployed. The survey, which was conducted between October and December 2007 and asked people in 61 countries of different continents about their labour prospects, also shows that, whereas 36% of the respondents think they would be able to find a new job fairly quickly should they become unemployed, almost half (47%) fear it may take longer.
Job Security
Respondents who declared to be working full or part time were asked whether they thought their present job is safe or if there is a chance that they may become unemployed. A quarter of the respondents believe that they might lose their job (24%), whilst 66% are optimistic and one in ten does not know (10%).
Skilled workers show a higher level of confidence in their ability to keep their job: the proportion of “safe” answers reaches 72% of the respondents with high level education, against 57% of those with only basic education. Consequently, 31% of the less educated respondents consider the possibility of loosing their job, whilst only 20% with high level education do.
Looking at regions across the world, respondents in Latin America (40%) are the most pessimistic regarding job security with four in ten employed respondents declaring that there is a chance they loose their job. Interestingly, Latin America stands out for its optimism regarding general and economic prospects for 2008, although this feeling clearly does not translate directly to job security. Three in ten people hold this opinion in Middle East and Eastern & Central Europe (both regions 32%), whilst about two in ten concur in Asia Pacific (23%), Western Europe (22%), Africa (18%) and North America (17%). On the opposite side, job security appears to be the strongest in North America (74%), Western Europe (73%) and Africa (71%) with seven in ten employed respondents declaring that their present job is safe.
Turning to the results for individual countries, the list of the top ten countries where more respondents declared that there is a chance that they may become unemployed is: Cameroon (51%), Serbia (47%), UN administered Kosovo (44%), Bolivia (44%), Panama (44%), Czech Republic (43%), Macedonia (42%), Ecuador (42%), Argentina (42%) and Colombia (42%).
The list of the top ten countries where more interviewees consider their jobs as being safe includes Norway (85%), Denmark (84%), Sweden (84%), Malaysia (84%), Iceland (83%), New Zealand (83%), Luxembourg (82%), Ireland (81%), Hong Kong (81%) and Australia (80%).
The countries where the level of optimism regarding job security grew the most, compare to last year results, are South Africa (safe: 68%; +16 points), Czech Republic (50%; +14 points), Kosovo (47%; +13 points), South Korea (67%, +12 points), Kenya (56%, +12 points), Nigeria (75%, +11 points), Ukraine (67%; +10 points), Switzerland (78%; +10 points). On the opposite side, in Argentina pessimism grew 11 points.
When relating the proportion of respondents who declared there might be a chance they lose their job with the unemployment rate in each country1, we can sometimes find different figures since the survey represents the perception of people. This analysis discovers countries with high unemployment rates and a relatively large proportions of respondents fearing to lose their job: Kosovo, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovinia. Also, we can identify countries with low unemployment rates and few people afraid of loosing their jobs such as Denmark, New Zealand, Norway, and Iceland. But interestingly, breaking the rule, there are countries with low unemployment rates but significant proportions of respondents who think they might lose their job: Thailand, Taiwan, Czech Republic, Philippines, Moldova, Greece, Panama and Argentina.
Confidence in finding a new job
The survey conducted by Gallup International cotinued by asking the interviewees to assess the difficulty they would have in finding a new job in the case they lost the current one. 36% believe they would be able to find a new job fairly quickly whilst 47% fear it may take longer. Again, education appears to be a key factor: whilst 39% of the surveyed with high lever education are optimistic about their ability to overcome unemployment in a short time, only 25% of those with primary education echo them. Also, confidence on this matter diminishes along with age: only two in ten respondents over 51 years old think they would find a job fairly quickly, as against four in ten (42%) of those below 30.
Looking at the results by region, six in ten respondents were pessimistic about their chances of recovering the loss of their job in Middle East (59%) and Latin America (55%), whilst nearly half felt the same way in North America (49%). Next, 45% in Eastern & Central Europe and 44% in Asia Pacific, Africa and Western Europe think it might take them longer to find a new job.
On a country-by-country analysis, the opinion that it may take longer to find a new job is more frequent in Egypt (70%), Paraguay (64%), Kenya (62%), Iraq (62%), Colombia (61%), Italy (61%), Macedonia (61%), Albania (60%), Lebanon (60%) and UN administered Kosovo (60%), whilst the countries where the highest levels of confidence on this matter are Iceland (79%), Australia (72%), New Zealand (72%), Denmark (70%), Norway (63%), Belgium (61%), Sweden (61%), Netherlands (59%), UK (59%), Israel (58%), Hong Kong (56%), and Finland (55%).
Further information:
Shemsi Krasniqi, Menaxher i hulumtimeve, Index Kosova
E-mail: Sh.Krasniqi@indexkosova.com
Tel: 038 247 977, 044 140 161
Or
Meril James, Secretary General, Gallup International Association,
GallupInternational@BTConnect.com
Tel: +44 20 8967 4039
www.gallup-international.com
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