Federal Reserve Bank of New York recently released the results of its SCE Labor Market Survey from July, which shows some worrying trends among workers in the U.S. More Americans are afraid of unemployment, while the number of those actively looking for a new job climbed to the highest level in a decade.
According to the survey, 4.4% of respondents believe there is a likelihood of them becoming unemployed. This is an increase from 3.9% from the same period last year and the highest percentage since the survey debuted in 2014.
Americans are also actively looking for new jobs more than ever. 28.4% of individuals responding to the survey said they have been looking for a new job in the last four weeks compared to 19.4% of respondents in the survey from July 2023. The percentage of active job seekers was higher among those who were older than age 45, didn’t have a college degree, and reported an annual household income of less than $60,000.
Additionally, the respondents expressed less satisfaction with wage compensation, nonwage benefits, and promotion opportunities on a year-over-year basis. Satisfaction with wage compensation dropped from 59.9% to 56.7%, satisfaction with nonwage benefits decreased to 56.3% from 64.9%, and 44.2% of respondents are satisfied with promotion opportunities compared to 53.5% from July 2023.