61% of workers don't feel secure in jobs

About 61% of Zimbabwean workers feel they can be retrenched at any time, a new survey reveals.

"We asked the respondents whether or not they felt secure in their current job. Most (61.34%) of them disagreed that they felt secure in their current job compared to 38.65% that said they felt secure in their current job," said Memory Nguwi, managing consultant of Industrial Psychology Consultants (IPC), which carried out an employee confidence report. The workers were surveyed in the first quarter. In the same period last year, 37% of workers said they were insecure.

The employee confidence survey is conducted to gauge workers' confidence in the economic environment. The continued threat of retrenchment in all sectors and staff rationalisation measures, among other factors, negatively affects the Job Security Index.

A total of 32.92% of female respondents said they felt secure in their jobs compared to 42.46% of males. The findings say "31.84% of non-managerial workers say they feel secure in their jobs compared to 42.33% of managerial employees".

But just 38.73% of the married respondents feel safe in their jobs compared to 41.87% of the single (never married), while 22.64% of the single (married before) say they feel secure.

According to the report, employees between the ages of 31 and 40 years are more secure about their jobs, whereas those less than 25 years are least secure about their jobs. Nguwi said it could be because those with years of experience fall into this category and were therefore difficult and costly for industry to displace.

On academic qualifications, employees with post-graduate degrees are most secure about their jobs, whereas those with advanced level certificates are least secure. The Zimbabwean corporate and industry culture places a high value on the level of academic qualification.

The research comes at a time when industries are operating below an average of 40% capacity. Firms in cities such as Bulawayo have closed shop and only remain with branches in the capital, Harare.

According to the World Bank, unemployment is at 95%, up from 70% in 2003.

And a new global competitiveness report says Zimbabwe has eight poor rankings out of nine in respect to key labour market fundamentals.