Study finds 8 in 10 insecure over work status

Eight out of 10 regular employees at companies of varying sizes and sectors feel insecure about their job status, according to a recent survey by Job Korea, a market research firm.

Of the 1,065 respondents, just 19.8 percent of regular job holders felt secure in their jobs. When the survey was conducted 10 years ago, 51.3 percent of the 1,184 workers said they were insecure about their employment status. That means a rise of 28.9 percentage points in a decade.

Job Korea said the recent trend of restructuring and early retirement has heightened unrest. “When employment insecurity heightens, workplace satisfaction is lowered, hampering their efficiency and dragging down corporate competitiveness,” said Byun Ji-sung, a Job Korea spokesman.

“Companies should come up with diverse measures to ease the feeling of job insecurity, whereas employees are encouraged to manage their own career at all times.”

By age, 89.3 percent of workers 40 or older said they are insecure about their employment status compared to 83.6 percent of those in their 30s and 69.9 percent of twenty-somethings.

Employees at small- and medium-size companies felt squeezed the most, or 83.5 percent of respondents; 76.8 percent of foreign-company workers and 73.7 percent of employees at large companies feel pressured. Even 68.6 percent of public company employees, who typically have better job security, said they are unsure about their job prospects.

Almost 93 percent of workers in the struggling machinery, steel, shipbuilding and heavy industries said their jobs are insecure, followed by 91.7 percent of construction workers, 89.7 percent of finance employees and 87 percent of those in the electronics and electrical sector.

Female workers were more insecure about their job, as 81.3 percent of them indicated, compared to 79.2 percent of men.

BY SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun@joongang.co.kr]