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. ‘Trusting their own skills’ 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…