The Employee Confidence Index for U.S. workers in the industrial, manufacturing and construction industries declined 1.7 points to 53 in the fourth quarter of 2006, according to the latest Spherion Employment Report survey.
The decline is in contrast to the U.S. Employee Confidence Index for all industries, which rose 2.3 points in the same period.
More workers believe that fewer jobs are available (45 percent) as compared to third quarter (40 percent) and fewer have confidence in the future of their current employer (22 percent versus 16 percent). Slightly more than half (52 percent) remain confident in their ability to find new jobs, although that figure is down three percentage points from previous quarter.
One optimistic offset is an increase in the percentage of workers who believe the economy is stable, up four percentage points in the fourth quarter to 39 percent. In addition, 33 percent of workers are likely to look for a new job this year, down from 40 percent in the third quarter.
A recent Spherion Workplace Snapshot survey revealed that 21 percent of workers actually changed jobs in 2006 on a voluntary basis.
Compared to the fourth quarter a year ago, the Employee Confidence Index was up 1.4 points with significantly more workers expressing confidence in their employers' futures (56 percent versus 46 percent).
"We weren't overly surprised to see the Employee Confidence Index for this sector come back down after a third-quarter high," says Ralph Henderson, senior vice president of staffing services for Spherion, in a release. "Demand for logistics and retail personnel picked up in Florida, reflecting seasonal needs, and the call for forklift operators continues as well."
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