Weekly data from Experian Simmons DataStreamSM show that Americans today are still less likely to be working their way up the corporate ladder than they were prior to the recession. On the bright side, things have been looking better for American workers since April.
Specifically, as of October 18, 2010, Experian Simmons found that 6.5% of U.S. adults had changed jobs for something better in the previous year. That’s a relative decline of 34% compared to January 14, 2008, when 9.9% of Americans said they had changed jobs for the better. Meantime, the share of Americans who changed jobs for something at either a lower level or with lower pay remained relatively stable. (As of October 18, 2010, 2.4% of Americans said that in the last year they took a job at a lower level or with lower pay than the one they had before.)
On a more positive note, it appears that Americans are rebounding in terms of moving up the corporate ladder. On April 5, 2010, just 4.6% of Americans said they had taken a better job in the past year, the lowest level recorded in the 145 week observation period. Since then, Americans are increasingly likely to be changing jobs for the better. In fact, comparing the October 2010 figures with those from April, we see that Americans today are 41% more likely to trade up at work today than they were just 6 months prior.
Given the current state of affairs, Americans are still not sure what the future holds in store. In fact, the share of Americans who believe they will change jobs for the better in the next year has fluctuated up and down in the previous years marked by economic turmoil. In any case, as of October 18, 2010, 8.2% of Americans believed they would be making a move to a better job in the next year, a relative increase of 24% compared to July 7, 2010, when only 6.6% of Americans believed they would be moving up the ladder at work. Just one percent of Americans expect to be changing jobs for something at a lower level of with lower pay in the next year.
For more information on Simmons DataStream weekly reporting of nearly 40,000 consumer variables, visit our website.