Almost half of laid off secure new jobs in US: Survey

NEW YORK: Amid challenging conditions in the US job market some positive indications are being witnessed, with close to half of the people who were laid off in past few months securing new jobs, a survey has said.

According to the survey by job portal CareerBuilder, about 48 per cent of workers who were laid off from full-time jobs in the three months preceding the survey, have found new full-time positions, while three per cent found part-time positions. The survey completed in June.

The report said that workers who were laid off in the last 12 months and found new jobs, more than half (56 per cent) of them were able to negotiate comparable or higher pay for their new positions. The 44 per cent respondents witnessed a pay cut.

"Despite a challenging job market, workers have been able to find employment opportunities in a variety of fields. Even though the number of workers who took part-time positions is tracking below last quarter, the number who found full-time jobs is notably higher," CareerBuilder North America President Brent Rasmussen said.

"This is a positive indication that more workers who were laid off from full-time jobs were able to replace them with new full-time positions instead of taking part-time work as an interim measure to generate income. Part of this job search success is related to workers expanding career options to new industries and locations," Rasmussen added.