One In Three Americans Who Have Lost A Job Report Having Started A New One In The Past Month

Indianapolis - Strada Education Network, a national social impact organization dedicated to forging pathways between education and employment, has released a new analysis of its weekly, nationally representative survey tracking the impact of the global pandemic on Americans' lives, work, and education.

This week's Public Viewpoint report focuses on the 53 percent of Americans who have lost a job, income, or hours because of COVID-19. Of these workers, a third have started a new job: 14 percent have started a new full-time job, 19 percent a new part-time job, and 2 percent both a new full-time and new part-time job. The likelihood of having started a new job is comparable for education levels ranging from less than high school through a bachelor's degree, but Americans with graduate or professional degrees are much more likely to have started a new job.

"Among those who have lost work or income, the only meaningful difference we see is how much more likely workers with graduate or professional degrees are to have found new jobs," said Nichole Torpey-Saboe, Director of Research at the Strada Center for Consumer Insights. "We expected that workers with associate and bachelor's degrees would be more likely to find new jobs as well, but to our surprise, they aren't."

Among Americans who have lost jobs or income, Latino and black Americans are more likely to have started new jobs than white Americans, and this holds true across all education levels. However, Latino Americans are the most likely to have lost a job, income, or hours in the first place. Similarly, Millennials are the most likely to have lost jobs, income, or hours-but after suffering such an income loss, they also are the most likely to have found new employment. Additional key findings from the Public Viewpoint: COVID-19 Work and Education Survey include:

• Among workers who have lost jobs, income, or hours, those in IT (55 percent) are most likely to have started a new job, followed by those in finance (53 percent) and construction/extraction (47 percent). Nevertheless, workers in IT and finance are among the most worried about losing their jobs as a result of COVID-19.

• Workers in two fields that have been heavily impacted by the crisis-leisure/hospitality and personal care/services-are among the least likely to have found new jobs (at 23 percent each) after suffering loss of a job, income, or hours.

• Millennials, at 45 percent, are most likely to have started a new job after suffering some form of income loss, followed by Generation Z at 38 percent, Generation X at 30 percent and Baby Boomers at 6 percent.

• Half of Americans with graduate and professional degrees have started a new job following income loss. Only 30 percent of those with bachelor's degrees have, in line with the percentage of Americans with less education.

Each week, 1,000 Americans are surveyed for the Public Viewpoint. To date, over 7,000 Americans have participated. The Public Viewpoint is produced by Strada Education Network's Center for Consumer Insights, a research team that studies the experiences and perceptions of American adults in order to inform the development of a more consumer-centered learning ecosystem. The Center for Consumer Insights provides the nation's largest education consumer database, which includes more than 350,000 completed surveys about the education and work experiences of American adults.

View the full Public Viewpoint findings at: https://www.stradaeducation.org/publicviewpoint/.

Source: Strada Education Network news release