Workers remain confident in their skills despite economic jitters: Study
Workers remain confident in their skills despite economic jitters: Study.
Workers aren't just waiting for the economy to improve — they're also betting on their skills.
Despite a stagnant job market, the looming doom of AI potentially replacing them, and persistent worries about pending layoffs, roughly 7 in 10 workers report high confidence that their skills would be valuable in roles at other organizations and would make them competitive in the job market, according to the Global Employee Monitor, a report published Wednesday by SHRM.
Add to that this overwhelming swagger: More than 8 in 10 US workers boast that they "adapt effectively to changes in priorities, processes, or work environments, and that the quality of their work exceeds expectations."
"Workers are quite confident in their capabilities despite technological changes and the economic uncertainty that's been permeating," James Atkinson, vice president of thought leadership at SHRM, told Yahoo Finance.
"They are focused on the things that they can control," he said. "They can't control how the overall economy is shifting, the uncertainty, the ups and downs of that, but they're optimistic about their own abilities."
SHRM surveyed 10,789 workers across 26 countries from January to June. Participants were at least 18 years old and employed either full-time or part-time at organizations across a range of industries.
While job-hugging is not going away, rather than trusting employers to offer job security, workers increasingly trust their own skills to create it.
Nearly 7 in 10 US workers said they're more inclined to stay at their jobs than leave, but that hasn't stopped them from seeing what's out there — 4 in 10 said they have actively searched for a new job in the past 12 months, and 30% said they've seriously considered quitting their jobs.
But they are leaning into shoring up what they have to offer. Workers are actively investing in new skills and adapting to change, Atkinson said. "They're seeing the changes that are coming, and they're working to figure out how to prepare themselves for that."
"Workers seem to be making a distinction about AI coming for jobs that most headlines miss," Dan Schawbel, a workplace trends expert and managing partner of Workplace Intelligence, told Yahoo Finance.
"They're not confident their current job is safe; they're confident their skills are portable," he said. "That's a much smarter read on the labor market than blind optimism, because it means people are hedging against employer risk rather than ignoring it."
"That shift toward skills as the asset rather than the job is exactly the mindset that holds up best in downturns," Schawbel added.
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That fear of technological transformation is still there, Atkinson said. "I don't want to minimize that, but it's moving toward 'let me figure it out and move forward with it.'"
The upshot: Workers are adding credentials and certifications focused on targeted skills to highlight and leverage as they try to advance within their own organization or when they're looking for other jobs, he added.
"Workers trust themselves now more than they trust the world around them — I find it heartening that even as the economy wobbles, their confidence in what they bring stays steady," Nancy Ancowitz, a career strategist , told Yahoo Finance.
"My clients tell me the pressure to get and stay employed can be relentless," she said. "Yet they keep adapting and delivering. We've become a workforce of chameleons."
Nearly 9 in 10 workers agreed they have effectively adjusted to changes in their work and have worked to build or improve the skills needed to navigate future shifts, according to the report.