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More Than Half of U.S. Workers Have Concerns About Job Security, Survey Finds

Men (62.87%) are more likely than women (47.53%) to fear for their job security, according to the Authority Hacker survey.

Mar. 12, 2024

By Michael Grothaus, Fast Company (TNS)

Mass layoffs in the tech industry have made headlines nearly every week since late 2022. Combine that constant barrage with the rise of AI and uncertainty over the global economy and you have the perfect recipe for increasing anxiety across the American workforce when it comes to fears about job security.

Now a new survey out from online marketing firm Authority Hacker put some concrete numbers on just how many of the currently employed are worried about their job security in the years ahead. In a survey of 1,200 workers, Authority Hacker found that:

  • 54.58% of full-time workers have increased concerns about their job security.
  • Men (62.87%) are more likely than women (47.53%) to fear for their job security, which Authority Hacker says may reflect the 3:1 gender ratio of male to female employees in tech firms.
  • The more a person makes, the more likely they are to worry about their job security. Those making $150,000 or more worry the most about their job security (72.48%), while those making $50,000 or less worry the least (50.26%).
  • The younger an employee, the more likely they are to worry about their job security, with 62.2% of 25 to 44 year-olds worried versus less than 50% of those over the age of 45 worried.
  • C-suite execs are the most worried about their job security at 79.31%. 
  • But just 46.82% and 45.80% of non-management staff and admin staff, respectively, are worried about their job security.

The larger the company is, the more likely employees are to worry about their job security. Authority Hacker found that 74.33% of those at companies that employ between 500 and 1,000 workers worry about their job security, while only 45.38% of workers at companies with 25 or fewer employees worry about their job security.

And when it comes to concerns by profession, workers most likely to fear for their jobs happen to be those whose industries are most at risk of being impacted by AI. Those professions are:

  1. IT – services & data: 89.66%
  2. Software development: 74.42%
  3. Advertising: 70.00%
  4. Finance and insurance: 67.56%
  5. Human resources: 64.29%

To arrive at its findings, Authority Hacker surveyed 1,200 full-time workers in the United States aged 25 and above.

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