Here’s What’s In Store For Job Stability And The Future Of Work

• According to a recent ADP survey, only 20% of workers feel that their job is stable and secure. 
• Some reasons for widespread worry include the profound shifts in work environments over the past two years. 
• If what lies ahead is indeed a rescission or a depression, workers are right to be worried about job loss which is a certainty of such unstable economic conditions. 

As it stands, over the past year, there have been more jobs available than ever. Demand for work is at an all-time high, but companies are still struggling with labor shortages. Yet, currently employed workers are more worried than ever about job security.  

Workers are worried about job security 

According to a recent ADP survey, only 20% of workers feel that their job is stable and secure. Some reasons for widespread worry include the profound shifts in work environments over the past two years.   

This includes the fact that job training is increasingly for tomorrow’s jobs, not today’s jobs. Moreover, since such training is not given to already hired employees, the prospect of layoffs becomes a more salient possibility from the perspectives of employed workers. 

Another reason most workers worry about job security and stability is inflation. For most workers, wages do not go up in proportion with rises in inflation, diminishing the purchasing power of worker salaries.  

Inflation is known conventionally as an economic phenomenon that precedes recessions and depressions. And if what lies ahead is indeed a rescission or a depression, workers are right to be worried about job loss which is a certainty of such unstable economic conditions.  

In short, despite the actual numerical wage increases, real wages are decreasing. Likewise, many workers are apprehensive about being left behind as the world of work, and its technological infrastructure makes radical changes.  

Workers are justifiably worried about the additional prospect of economic collapse in the wake of inflation.  

Voluntary decreases in job stability 

Job stability is almost guaranteed to decrease in the future of work because of the Great Resignation. Millions of workers each month have been quitting their jobs for nearly a year now, which is expected to continue indefinitely.  

For example, according to Willis Towers Watson’s 2022 Global Benefits Attitudes Survey, 44% of employed workers can be categorized as job seekers. 

This is one among many similar reports – indeed, one that is rather conservative. Other reports suggest that most American workers have been looking for a job since the start of the pandemic, and most still are.   

What will job stability look like in the future?   

Many workers are cynical about job stability in the future. For example, 60% of people think that very few people will have long-term stable employment in the future, according to the PWC Workforce of the future report.  

But how representative of job stability in the future of work is this majority opinion? Will job stability considerably diminish over the next few years?  

In many ways, there is no real way to answer this question definitively, as sometimes substantial market changes happen unpredictably, causing an industry or a company to tank. However, what is clear is that job stability in the future of work is somewhat precarious.  

The Great Resignation will continue indefinitely and as will inflation, so predicting the nature of job stability across industries in the next couple of years tilts towards less job stability than more.  

To learn about the future, we can look to history. For example, in times of economic instability, job stability will become less common and thus should not be expected as the necessary outcome of acquiring a job.    

The best a worker can do in light of this distorted situation is to future-proof themselves on the job market. One way of doing this is by researching companies in your line of work with good long-term job stability records. 

Keeping spirits and patience high will be of great necessity for maintaining well-being in the face of these problematic and harrowing economic conditions. There is both a good reason for cynicism and also a good reason for hope. 

While job stability is likely to decrease over the next few years, the Great Resignation has given workers the upper hand in many ways never before thought possible.  

Because of the Great Resignation, workers have much greater flexibility and drive to get better, higher-paying, and more flexible work for themselves, instead of being tied down to a job simply because of its benefit of stability.  

Nonetheless, workers are justified in their cynicism, as job stability rates have been declining for decades.