Survey: Workers Still Nervous About Their Jobs

Tali Arbel, AP Business Writer

STILL NERVOUS

Americans remain nervous about their job security and the strength of the economy, according to a survey by jobs website SnagAJob.com.

Worries about jobs are pervasive: 35% of those polled this summer said they felt their jobs were less secure than in 2009. That's an improvement from how respondents felt a year ago, though, when 52% said job instability was worse than in 2008.

Part of the reason for worry may have been the experience of being laid off. The survey showed that 34% of people who said they had changed jobs in the past year did so after losing their previous position, up from 25% who said they had changed jobs because of a layoff in summer 2009.

The number of people polled whose top fear for the future is losing their job has tripled since the 2007 survey to 9%, this summer's survey showed. Saving for retirement and college education remained the biggest worry throughout the four years that the survey has been conducted.

SnagAJob.com, an online jobs board, randomly polled 1,000 U.S. adult workers by telephone from July 8-26. The margin of error for the poll was 3.1 percentage points.

BACK TO WORK

The first day on a new job can be overwhelming. The new hire has to interact with hordes of unknown co-workers, customers or clients, figure out the responsibilities that go with the new job, and learn the layout of a new work space.

Career coaches offer tips on how to have a first-class first day: