Americans Rethink Work Attitudes in Challenging Job Market

Confidence that the country’s employment situation will improve over the next year is lacking according to a recent survey of investors by Millionaire Corner. Nearly half think that it will not improve compared while about 23 percent take a more optimistic outlook.

Respondents under the age of 40, presumably those with the most opportunities, expressed the most optimism (just over 27 percent) that the job situation would improve. Across age groups, baby boomers ages 41-50 expressed the least (just under 19 percent).

Considering the country’s unemployment rate has been the highest in nearly three decades with the greatest number of people out of work for more than one year, it is perhaps not surprising that Americans were retooling their financial situations.

In a 2011 wealth level study Millionaire Corner conducted of households with a net worth between $100,000 and $1 million (not including primary residence), 45 percent said that the prolonged economic crisis has compelled them to reduce their debt, while 17 percent have increased savings in more conservative avenues as savings accounts and CDs.

Unemployed Americans who are looking for are also rethinking their attitudes toward work. According to a recent Rutgers University survey, 70 percent said they would accept a temporary job, while 65 percent would take a job that paid a little less. Just over two thirds said that would accept a job in a field that is outside their experience. Fifty-nine percent said they would accept a lower-status job or one that had less favorable working hours.

Over half (54 percent) said they would accept a job that was below their level of training.

They are no doubt their attitude adjustments have been influenced by the dire job situation. Seventy-eight percent told researchers that they, an immediate family member, a close friend, or a close friend of someone in the immediate household had lost a job.

Not surprisingly, of the 44 percent of households Millionaire Corner surveyed who said that one of their primary personal concerns was they or their spouse losing their job, 51 percent were under 55.