LinkedIn News reports that American workers are feeling less and less confident in their job security these days. These findings of LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence survey were reported today, March 6.
Lowest Score Ever
Begun in April 2020 and reported on a quarterly basis, the survey measures U.S. workers’ confidence in finding or keeping a job. Confidence is reported on a scale of -100 to +100. In April 2020, the first findings revealed a confidence score of +43. It peaked at + 58 in April 2022, but since then it has fallen steadily to this February’s all-time low of +39.
How this career coach sees it
LinkedIn’s report is based on hard data – and that is awfully hard data for this career coach to swallow. Beyond the data is what we make of it, and here’s my view – from my vantage point of watching the American job market on a daily basis for 28 years and coaching thousands of people through three recessions, three recoveries, and one pandemic.
It’s going to get worse – not by a little and not slowly. My rationale? Two factors are at play:
(1) It doesn’t appear that his data includes the massive layoffs executed by President Trump’s executioner, Elon Musk. Those mass layoffs and firings haven’t hit the data crunchers yet, but when they do, we can expect expansion and acceleration of the trend.
(2) Recessions are natural and inescapable; we’ve had more than 50 in our history. The big question is not whether we will have one; the question is how will we manage it and how deep and long will it be? Already, President Trump has displayed a hostility to the working class, and that, most observers and participants agree, is the problem.
Mike Del Valle, a Chicago-based executive recruiter with 18 years in the business, says he has “never sensed a level of fear” in his candidate pool as intense and urgent as now. “My candidates fear that if the Sword of Damocles can come down so swiftly on some of what are considered really secure jobs [government]
,” says Del Valle, “Can any of us be far behind?”
Olivia Tisdale, a New Jersey and Philadelphia-based mid-level biotech research scientist, agrees, “I do critical research in the life sciences in an area of the world where these jobs proliferate,” says Tisdale. “Two years ago, I would have said ‘no way would there be a jobs crisis,’ but now it’s a reality – just a matter of when.”
Action Steps
Tisdale is doing what Del Valle is advising all his candidates to do: Make yourself market-ready immediately and professionally. That means:
Your next job
Be clear about what your next job will be, When asked what you’re looking for, you’d better have an actionable answer.
Your résumé etc.
Make sure your résumé and social media profiles are up to date and professionally done. In this environment, good enough is not good enough. Pay a pro.
Interviewing
Be an interview strategist. The reason most candidates don’t move forward is not forlack of interview skills; it’s for lack of interview strategies.
Career Planning
This is the time for some long-term thinking, like, where are you going from here?
Networking
Everyone networks, but not only do you have to do the right thing, you have to do the thing right.
Are you up with AI?
The question of the century!
The first step: Hire a coach.
In my 28 years as an independent career coach, I’ve never meant the following statement more: Don’t go it alone. Not now. Not forevermore.