Poll Points to Brighter Job Prospects

The prospects of getting a job, or keeping the one you've got, appear to be brightening in the telecom industry, according to Light Reading's January Work Poll.

So far, 293 people have taken the poll with the following results:

• 62 percent of respondents think it will get "a bit easier" to find a new job in 2004, compared to 2003, while 25 percent don't expect any change. Only 6 percent think it will get harder.
  
  
• Incumbent equipment manufacturers will be hiring the most people, believe 40 percent of respondents. This is way ahead of incumbent service providers (16 percent), incumbent component manufacturers (13 percent), and startup equipment manufacturers (also 13 percent).
  
  
• Thirty-five percent of respondents think it's "a bit less likely" that they'll lose their job this year, compared to last; and 17 percent think it's "much less likely." Only 16 percent think it's more likely that they'll lose their job.
  
  
• Layoffs are most likely in startup equipment manufacturers, according to 27 percent of respondents. This is followed by incumbent service providers (23 percent). Incumbent component vendors get the lowest rating for this questions -- a mere 6 percent -- possibly because they're at the other end of a food chain that's beginning to see some signs of recovery.
  
  
• Most people (49 percent) aren't expecting a pay raise this year; 28 percent expect a small one of up to 5 percent. Only 4 percent of respondents expect to endure a pay cut.
  
  
• When asked how they felt about their career prospects in the telecom industry, 32 percent said it was "in the balance"; 28 percent said it was "depressing"; and 26 percent said they were "dented but not daunted." The folk who consider their career prospects "bright" just outnumber the ones who consider them "hopeless."

To take the poll yourself and see the latest results in detail, please click on this link.

— Peter Heywood, Founding Editor, Light Reading