American Workers Growing More Flexible About Temp Work, Changing Careers

With about a half-decade of a blah economy and weak employment, Americans are growing more amenable to taking temporary employment, changing their viewpoint from the glass-half-empty opinion of “it’s a job without permanence” to “it’s a job that may lead to something permanent one day.”

This is according to the latest Workplace Insights Survey from the folks at Adecco, which found that 63% of Americans now look at temp jobs more positively than they did last year, while 86% believe that a temp gig is a viable option for someone who wants to gain work experience.

To that end, 68% of respondents say they are now more willing to look for a job outside their specialty or field of study. Unemployed Americans are even more willing to be flexible, with 73% saying they could be flexible if it means a job.

For those of you with jobs, the Adecco survey finds that only 32% of Americans received a pay raise, bonus or promotion in 2011. Of course, considering that only 13% say they asked for the extra pay, that’s not a horrible sign.

And it looks like workers’ expectations may be improving, with 41% of respondents saying they expect a raise/bonus/promotion in 2012, with 24% saying they intend to ask their employer for one.

Since it’s a presidential election year, we have to mention that 49% of survey respondents say that jobs creation will be the biggest factor in which candidate they vote for in November. Healthcare reform followed a distant second with 18%.

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