In light of nation-wide increases in temporary staffing, Think Resources, the engineering arm of Randstad in the United States, presented technical job applicants at ThinkJobs.com and ThinkEnergyGroup.com (two of the web’s most popular engineering-focused job boards), with two questions:

1. What is your current employment status?
2. Agree or Disagree: I am willing to take a contract position for my next job

Findings Overview

The basic findings of this Worksource Report can be outlined as follows:

• 69% of technical job seekers are open to contract work
• 58% of employed, salaried, technical job seekers are open to contract work
• Contract job seekers are 20% more likely to be employed than salaried job seekers
• Electrical Engineering job seekers are 25% more likely to be employed than the average technical job seeker

Technical Job Seekers & Contracting

One of the more unexpected findings of this Worksource Report was that the majority (58%) of employed, salaried job seekers were open to contracting.

According to the report, contract job seekers were 20% more likely to be employed than their salaried counterparts, which may be what is leading the reported shift in attitude among employed, salaried professionals.

The Employment Picture

Among all 3,300 job seekers who answered the question “what is your current employment status,” 38% responded that they were employed with the remaining 62% responding that they were either under or unemployed.

Some groups are faring better than others in the current job market with Electrical Engineers among the groups that are benefiting most.  Electrical Engineers were 25% more likely than the average technical job seeker to report that they were currently employed.  This comes as no surprise when viewed in light of the findings presented in Think Resources’ first Think Tank report, administered in December of 2009, which found that the industries most likely to be hiring were Electronics, Aerospace, and Electrical  Utilities.

This Worksource Report once again found that job seekers with less experience were more likely to be employed.  Candidates with 0-10 years of experience were 64% more likely to be employed than those with 30+ and 36% more likely to be employed than those with 20-30 years of experience.

Other key findings of the Worksource Report included:

• The higher a job seeker’s salary or pay rate, the more likely they were to be employed. Technical job seekers reporting salaries of over $120k per year were two and a half times more likely to be employed than job seekers reporting salaries of $30k – $45k per year.
• Technical Job Seekers with a Masters Degree or higher were 47% more likely to be employed than the average job seeker.
• Technical job seekers in New England were 22% more likely to be employed than job seekers anywhere else in the United States.

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Methodology

3,414 job applicants responded to the statement, “Agree or Disagree: I am willing to take a contract position for my next job”.  They were asked to select on a scale of one to five where one was “strongly disagree” and five was “strongly agree.”

3,353 job applicants answered the question, “What is your current employment status?”  They were asked to select between “employed salaried professional”, “employed contractor”, “un/underemployed salaried professional”, and “un/underemployed contractor.”

1,140 job applicants answered both the first and second questions.  At the end of the application process at ThinkEnergyGroup.com, one question was posed to candidates in no specific order between February 22^nd and March 16^th, 2010.   Candidates who answered both questions applied to more than one job.