Job security concerns in tech jumped, especially at these companies - Business Insider

The anonymous social network Blind surveyed nearly 7,000 tech workers about their job security and found a 33% increase in concern between March and April.Facebook employees were the least concerned about their jobs; Expedia employees were the most worried.Blind also surveyed tech workers on whether or not they were worried about pay cuts. There was a 22% jump in concerned employees from one month to the next. Amazon workers were the least worried about their pay; Lyft workers were the most concerned.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Nearly three-quarters of employees at tech companies are concerned about their job security, according to a new survey from anonymous social media app Blind, conducted exclusively for Business Insider. That's a 33% jump from results of the same survey a month ago. Blind asked its users “Are you concerned your job security will be negatively affected by the economic trends stemming from the Coronavirus？” and 72% percent of the 6,950 tech workers that answered between April 11 and 15 said “Yes.” In an identical survey conducted between March 9 and 11, only 54% of 7,155 respondents answered yes. The numbers of employees that answered the survey varied greatly from company to company, from 560 employees at Amazon to 48 at Adobe. But a breakdown of Blind's data by employer still allows for a timely reflection of how workers at individual companies feel at a time of uncertainty and trepidation.For example, Facebook employees were the least concerned about their jobs, according to the data, with just half saying they were worried. Expedia employees were the most worried, with 95% expressing concern (perhaps unsurprising, given that Expedia laid off 12% of its workforce in late February). Employees from travel and gig-economy companies were some of the most concerned, generally.

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Tech industry analyst Charles King of Pund-IT Weekly Review says that the increased concern reflects “the massive, rapid evolution of COVID-19-influenced events.”

The findings also illustrate that job fears are not “falling equally on everyone,” King says. “That's due to the fact that the crises hammering some businesses and industries have also created opportunities for other tech companies,” he says, “Including cloud computing, online gaming, and entertainment and vendors that provide work from home solutions and services.” Another noteworthy tidbit from the survey is the month-over-month increase in concern from workers at large companies. In March, less than half of the workers at Amazon, Google, LinkedIn, and Salesforce were concerned about their jobs. At Apple, only 39% of workers were worried about their jobs in March.Any semblance of serenity melted away in April though. No company surveyed this month had less than 60% of its employees say they were concerned about job security. The survey comes as record-setting unemployment claims are being reported nationwide. The Labor Department reported on Thursday that 5.2 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance in the week that ended April 11, bringing the four-week total to roughly 22.03 million, a record for a period of that length.

Daniel Alpert, a creator of the US Private Sector Job Quality Index, told Business Insider that the new wave of national layoffs are moving beyond frontline workers immediately cut from jobs at businesses deemed nonessential to “avoidable layoffs or furloughs in white-collar service sectors administrative, professional, technical, management and sales positions.”Businesses across every industry are cutting jobsor putting employees on furlough. The results of Blind's job security query were roughly mirrored in a companion question: “Are you concerned your total income is going to be negatively affected by the economic trends stemming from the Coronavirus？”Seventy-six percent of respondents answered “yes” this month, while 62% answered “yes” in March, which is about a 23% increase in concern.Amazon workers were the least worried about their pay, with 65% expressing concern; 94% of Lyft workers said they are concerned, at the other end of the spectrum.

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Blind's spokesperson Fiorella Riccobono said chatter on the app has shifted from discussion of negotiating techniques to win better pay to conversations about finding a job.

“In the coronavirus era, working professionals are stepping up and helping those who have been laid off or furloughed,” she said, “By sharing an increase of job posting links, insights to companies or teams early in their recruiter phase, or offering referrals.”