Jobs in a Recession Survey Results 3: Most Recent Hires Received “Average” Compensation

This is part 3 of an ongoing community project to help people understand how to get jobs during a recession.

This data is slightly skewed towards those that are already active in social media as the survey went to those within my network on my blog and the highly connected Twitter community. There were 214 respondents to the survey although this graphic only represents those who got jobs since Sept 2008 (71 respondents) that represent those that were hired during the announcement of the recession. This sample set is smaller than one would expect out of a formal research project, after multiple promotions, it was capping out at 200 respondents, and I don’t have other resources to deploy against email lists, or affiliate programs. This is a personal research project, and is not tied to my employer, clients, or anyone else for that matter.

Finding 3: Most Recent Hires Received “Average” Compensation
This is just the data from the 71 respondents that got hired since Sept 2008 (since the recession was announced).

56% of those recently hired reported that they received “average” compensation in what they considered market range.

In fact, there’s some good news as 21% of those recently hired reported that they received “more” compensation in what they considered market range.

14% of those recently hired reported that they received “less” compensation in what they considered market range.

This means that 77% of respondents were to be paid an “average” or “more” compensation that what they considered market range.

Recommendations for Job Seekers in a Recession

Job compensation rates are still holding up, employers haven’t had the need to cut back on compensation –yet.

This may due to the fact that many talented and experienced workers are seeking jobs, and keeping costs high

Job seekers shouldn’t ‘dumb down’ their resume to get in the door just yet, the job market hasn’t fully slumped, at least in the face of compensation. I know of some cases in the last dot bomb where people left their graduate degrees OFF their resume in order to be considered.

At some point this will turn over, and people may get hired with “Less” compensation that they feel is market average, of course market average is purely a perspective, we know that you always get paid what you’re actually worth.

When compensation does turn south, expect employers to offer barters for increased benefits, or pay-for-performance plans where individuals are compensated for their actual job –not just salary. Job seekers should then factor into their contract a re-negotiation period when the market recovers, and ensure they are compensated correctly for over-performance.

Overall, this combined with the last survey results, really shows that people in this community are able to quickly find jobs, it’s not as bad as it seems –yet.

To find the other results from this survey, I’ll be tagging the post “Job Survey” and you can click that category to learn more. I forgot to thank some folks with their ideas for questions for the survey such as Peter Kim, Bryan Person, Chris Kenton, and Charlene Li.

Coming soon I’ll be posting results for: titles that were hired, and some other interesting data cuts

Resources: See my Web Strategy Job Board