Most U.S. workers laid off last year found new jobs

One-quarter also see pay gains: CareerBuilder

Sixty per cent of workers who were laid off in the last year have landed new jobs, with 88 per cent finding full-time positions, according to a CareerBuilder survey.

Of those workers who are still searching for new opportunities, 56 per cent said they are nervous about returning to work after an extended period of unemployment, found the survey of 809 workers who were laid off from full-time jobs in the last year.

More than one-half (54 per cent) of the workers who were laid off in the last year and found new jobs reported they found them in entirely different fields than where they previously worked.

“We need to do a better job as a nation to help workers identify jobs that are in-demand today and are projected to grow in the future,” said Brent Rasmussen, president of CareerBuilder North America. “We have a growing skills gap and the need to get millions of Americans back to work. As the economy recovers, we need to focus on retraining and ‘re-skilling’ workers to help them move to new fields with a greater number of opportunities.”

Workers are also changing residences — of workers who were laid off and found new jobs, 36 per cent relocated to a new city or state. Of those who haven’t yet found new jobs, 38 per cent said they would consider relocating for a position.

The majority of laid-off workers who found new jobs reported their pay is similar to or higher than their previous position, found CareerBuilder. Forty-five per cent reported taking a pay cut, an improvement from 47 per cent last year, and 27 per cent found jobs with higher pay, up from 22 per cent last year.

But there are concerns about re-entering the workforce. One-half of the workers surveyed said they were worried about the pressure to prove themselves while 40 per cent pointed to fear of the unknown and 21 per cent cited new technologies with which they may not be familiar.

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