Unemployed Chicago jobseekers have a unrealistic salary expectations according to a recent survey by the LaSalle Network.
Unemployed Job seekers in Chicago say they’re holding out for more money… or at least less of a pay cut, according to a recent survey by the LaSalle Network, a Chicago-based recruiting and staffing firm.
About 24 percent of unemployed Chicagoans said they wouldn’t accept more than a 5 percent reduction in pay in their next Chicago job, according to the survey of 500 respondents.
A 5 percent pay cut might sound painful enough, but if you’re unemployed and want a job, it’s unrealistic to exclude the possibility of reducing your pay even further, Tom Gimbel, CEO of LaSalle, told Workforce Magazine. He called it a “pipe dream.”
Salary increases in Chicago dropped last year to below three percent, in-line with the national average, according to Hewitt Associates, a human resources consulting firm, told Workforce. But for the unemployed, even a meager three percent increase is out of reach, Gimbel said.
“People are going to have to realize, in order to return to the workforce, they are going to have to take a significant salary cut,” he said. “Some people are slow to acknowledge that.”
Gimble said unemployment, pay freezes for those still working and the heated competition for open positions was driving down initial salary offers.
Others in survey were more in line with Gimbel’s appraisal:
- 59 percent said they would accept a pay cut of up to 20 percent
- 17 percent said they would accept a pay cut of up more than 60 percent
Careful what you cut
Common advice from career coaches is to never accept less than what you are worth regardless of the economic conditions. Once concern is that once the recovery begins, your salary may not jump right back to where it was. But what if “what you’re worth” had changed. It’s a free market and the going rate for your position, skills and experience may be in decline.
It’s best be armed with salary data going into salary negotiations, said Jack Chapman, author of “Negotiating Your Salary: How to Make $1,000 a Minute,” in an article “Recessionary Salary Questions,” on TheLadders Career-Advice. Determining your individual value is part art, part science. He recommends you satisfy the science factor by reviewing salary data at JobStar.org, PayScale.com, Salary.com, Indeed.com and GlassDoor.com.
Also from the LaSalle survey:
- 40 percent of those looking for a job, expected to find one in three months. (down from 70 percent in May.
- 28 percent said they expected to find a job in six months
- 32 percent said they expected to find a job in one year
(Chicago by David Paul Ohmer via Flickr, CC3.0)
For more on salary advice in a down economy:
- Selling Your Salary in a Penny-Pinching Economy
- Four Ways to Negotiate Through This Economy
- Lowball Offer? Don’t Take It Personally
Holdiing out for more money in Chicago or anywhere with this job market is not a good idea. What is a good idea is to work now and look around once there are more jobs from which to choose.