Recent Workforce Trends

March 31st, 2006

2005 findings from the Jackson Lewis Workplace Survey have been released, according to the New York Business Wire (March 14, 2006). Jackson Lewis is a national law firm that represents management in workplace issues.

Corporate attorneys and human resource managers from large and medium-sized companies participating in Jackson Lewis workplace law conferences answered questions about trends and practices in their organizations.

Among the most notable results are the following:

Despite the low national unemployment rate, human resource executives say job security is the most critical issue facing the country. For the fifth consecutive year, job security was the chief concern, cited by almost half (48%) of the 2005 survey respondents. However, this is a substantial drop from 2004 when 66% identified job security as the most critical national issue.

Drug and alcohol testing is commonplace. In 2005, 62% of those surveyed said they conduct drug and alcohol testing. Of these, 91% test on a pre-hire basis. Most (69%) said there was no change in the number of positive results from the previous year. The most common method is urinalysis, cited by 55% of those who test their employees.

The number of companies reporting workplace lawsuits fell. In the 2005 survey when participants were asked, “Was your company sued by an employee for any reason during the past year?” 49% answered affirmatively. This was an 8% decrease from similar surveys conducted in 2004 and 2003 — in both years 57% of those surveyed said their organization had been sued by an employee.

Gender discrimination was the most frequent claim in 2005. Of those who were sued, when asked the nature of the claims, 51% cited gender discrimination. Race discrimination (45%), age discrimination (40%), disability discrimination (40%) and national origin discrimination (17%) were also reported. These results were relatively unchanged from a similar survey conducted in 2004.

Sexual harassment prevention training for supervisors reaches almost 90%. When asked if their companies train supervisors to prevent sexual harassment, the vast majority (89%) said yes. This was an increase from 81% in 2004 and 79% in 2003 when participants were polled in similar surveys. When asked if their companies provide mandatory prevention training for all employees, 56% of the 2005 participants indicated they did. This is generally unchanged from a 2004 survey when 57% of those polled said they trained all employees.

Complaints of sexual harassment show steady decrease. In 2005, 48% of those participating in the survey said there were no complaints of sexual harassment at their companies. In 2004, 44% of those polled said there were no complaints of this nature and in 2003, 37% said they did not have a sexual harassment complaint.