Sixty Percent of Workers Who Were Laid Off in the Last Year Found New Jobs, CareerBuilder Survey Finds

- More Than Half of Those Laid Off and Still Unemployed Workers Fear Re-entering the Workforce

- Workers Provide Examples of How They Switched to Entirely New Career Paths

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Aug 04, 2011, 06:00 ET

CHICAGO, Aug. 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- While more laid off workers are getting back to work, those who are still unemployed are anxious about re-entering the workforce. Sixty percent of workers who were laid off in the last year reported they landed new jobs with 88 percent of these workers finding full-time positions. Of those workers who are still searching for new opportunities, 56 percent said they are nervous about returning to work after an extended period of unemployment. The survey, which was conducted by Harris Interactive© from May 19 to June 8, 2011, included more than 800 workers who were laid off from full-time jobs in the last year.

When asked why they felt anxious about re-entering the workforce, 50 percent of laid off, unemployed workers said it was the pressure to prove themselves while 40 percent pointed to fear of the unknown and 21 percent cited new technologies with which they may not be familiar.

Fear of the unknown especially comes into play as workers look to new industries and occupations after exhausting options in their own fields. More than half of workers (54 percent) who were laid off in the last year and found new jobs reported they found them in entirely different fields than where they previously worked. Respondents provided the following real-life examples of how they transitioned to new career paths:

Financial advisor became a grade school teacher
Restaurant manager became a computer technician
Video store manager became a home health aide
Music teacher became an animal care technician
Marketing manager became an engineer
Bookkeeper became a truck driver
Production manager became a sales associate
Researcher became a customer service representative
Sales representative became a fitness trainer
Collections agency representative became a radiology technician

"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," said Brent Rasmussen, president of CareerBuilder North America. "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."

Relocating

Workers are not only changing industries, they're changing residences. Of workers who were laid off and found new jobs, 36 percent reported they relocated to a new city or state. Of those who haven't found new jobs yet, 38 percent said they would consider relocating for a position.

Pay Improving

The majority of laid off workers who found new jobs reported their pay is similar or higher than their previous position. Forty-five percent reported taking a pay cut, an improvement from 47 percent last year. Twenty-seven percent found jobs with higher pay, up from 22 percent last year.

Starting a Small Business

Some workers may replace their job search efforts with entrepreneurship. More than one-in-four (27 percent) who have not yet found work said they are considering starting their own business.

Survey Methodology

This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Interactive© on behalf of CareerBuilder among 809 U.S. workers who were laid off from full-time jobs in the last year between May 19 and June 8, 2011 (percentages for some questions are based on a subset, based on their responses to certain questions). With a pure probability sample of 809, one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 3.45 percentage points. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies.

About CareerBuilder®

CareerBuilder is the global leader in human capital solutions, helping companies target and attract their most important asset - their people. Its online career site, CareerBuilder.com®, is the largest in the United States with more than 24 million unique visitors, 1 million jobs and 40 million resumes. CareerBuilder works with the world's top employers, providing resources for everything from employment branding and data analysis to recruitment support. More than 9,000 websites, including 140 newspapers and broadband portals such as MSN and AOL, feature CareerBuilder's proprietary job search technology on their career sites. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), Tribune Company and The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI), CareerBuilder and its subsidiaries operate in the United States, Europe, Canada and Asia. For more information, visit www.careerbuilder.com.

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SOURCE CareerBuilder