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16 March 2006
Hong Kong
Jobs are often the first to go when market economies are flat or declining, and the last year has been no exception. According to a global online survey conducted by ACNielsen, a quarter of the world’s Internet population has been affected by redundancy, with eight percent laid off personally and an additional 17 percent claiming an immediate family member to have been made redundant in the past year.
The ACNielsen survey, conducted in November 2005, polled over 23,500 respondents – regular Internet users – in 42 markets globally.
Across the regions of the world, Latin American consumers appear to have been the most affected, with 43 percent redundancy, either personally (11%) or a member of their family (32%). Globally, Brazil topped the list of those most affected by redundancy, either directly or indirectly (52%), followed by Mexico (46%) and Chile (45%).
In Asia Pacific - the lowest in the region - only six percent had experienced redundancy, with a further 13 percent having a family member affected. Thailand topped the region with 16 percent of respondents surveyed being laid off while Indonesia stood out for having nearly a third of respondents whose immediate family member has been made redundant in the past 12 months.
At the other end of the scale, the Japanese, Finns and Kiwis had the least experience of redundancy, with 95 percent of Japanese, 92 percent of Finnish and 87 percent of Kiwi respondents claiming that neither they, nor a family member, had been laid off in the past year.
Unemployment rates are currently running at less than five percent in Japan and around three percent in New Zealand, which could go some way toward explaining the low level of redundancy ‘experience’ in these markets. Differences may also be an effect of employment legislation, where it may be expensive – in the case of Japan - or difficult because of labor laws - to make staff redundant.
Staff loyalty no longer valued,
UK and France agree
Around the globe, 59 percent of
people think companies don't value
staff loyalty as much as they did in
the past. The most certain of this
are more than two thirds of North
Americans (70%) and Latin Americans
(67%), followed by more than half
of consumers in Asia Pacific and
Europe. Just over half (58%) of
Europeans thought an appreciation
of loyalty to be a thing of the past.
At a market level, people in the UK
and France (76%), UAE (75%) and
Australia (73%) felt most strongly
about the lack of value placed on
staff loyalty. Singapore and New
Zealand ranked the second and third
in Asia Pacific. Interestingly, just over
half of the Swiss (54%), the highest
in the world, think companies do
value staff loyalty while Indonesia
(40%) and the Philippines marginally
(28%) are the only Asia Pacific
markets with the highest number of
people still believing in their
company's value for loyalty.
Are governments doing enough to encourage job creation?
Seven in 10 people surveyed think their government isn’t doing enough to encourage job creation, with Latin Americans again topping the list (74%) followed by the Europeans (73%). Nearly two thirds of people in North America and Asia Pacific felt the same. The Polish are the world’s most dissatisfied, with nine in 10 thinking their government isn’t doing enough to create jobs. People in Taiwan, Brazil and Indonesia followed closely at 87, 86 and 85 percent respectively. At the other end of the scale, nearly half of Singaporeans (43%) were the most convinced of their government’s efforts on the job front, followed by UAE (41%), New Zealand and Malaysia (32%).
In the consumers’ eyes, there is room for improvement for governments in the area of job creation. Providing an attractive fiscal environment for business investment, cooperation with corporations, retraining programs for the long-term unemployed or providing grants for start up businesses are all strategies that have worked elsewhere.
Overall, though, we don’t feel overworked
For those currently employed, over half feel their work hours are just right, led by Europe (56%) and Asia Pacific (54%), where specifically, Finland, Thailand and Indonesia topped the list. Globally, one third thought their work hours were too long, most strongly felt in Latin America (39%). Chile, Greece and Singapore had the world’s greatest number of people who thought their current work hours were too long. Taiwan (46%) and China (39%) were the other two Asia Pacific markets on the list. The findings have not only revealed the differences in domestic work environment in different markets but also major discrepancies in different professions in a market.
It’s worth mentioning that about one-tenth of those in Indonesia and India think that they could work longer hours and while the Russians went even further as the market with most spare time on their hands – and claimed their work hours were not long enough!
The ACNielsen Online Consumer Confidence Survey, the largest twice-yearly global survey of its kind, is aimed to gauge consumers’ current confidence levels, spending habits/intentions and current major concerns. The most recent wave of the survey took place in November 2005 and polled over 23,500 consumers – regular Internet users – in 42 markets in Europe, North and Latin America, Asia-Pacific region, Africa (Republic of South Africa) and the Middle East (UAE).
About ACNielsen
ACNielsen, a VNU business, is the world’s leading marketing information provider. Offering services in more than 100 markets, the unit provides measurement and analysis of marketplace dynamics and consumer attitudes and behaviour. Clients rely on ACNielsen’s market research, proprietary products, analytical tools and professional service to understand competitive performance, to uncover new opportunities and to raise the profitability of their marketing and sales campaigns. To learn more, visit www.acnielsen.com.
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