Job growth meager, but surveys show signs of hope

Applicants wait to meet prospective employers at a job fair in New York City, June 11, 2012. Some 400 people arrived early for the event held by National Career Fairs. / John Moore/Getty Images

(CBS News) Despite flagging job growth and a persistently high unemployment rate, jobless Americans may have reason to see a silver lining.

New surveys find growing confidence among unemployed job seekers about their prospects, as more hiring managers also indicate they will boost their payrolls in the second half of 2012.

Forty-two percent of those looking for work polled by Glassdoor, an online jobs and career online community, believe it's likely they will find a job matching their experience and compensation level in the next six months.

The is the highest confidence level in more than three years - and 17 percentage points higher than it was one year ago, when it was at its lowest point (25 percent) since the survey began.

Glassdoor Employment Confidence Survey Q2 2012

The GlassDoor survey comes as the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its June unemployment figures Friday. The U.S. added 80,000 jobs last month, less than most analysts had expected, and the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 8.2 percent.

President Barack Obama called the report a "step in the right direction," noting the creation of 4.4 million private sector jobs in the last 28 months. But he also acknowledged that the economy must grow "even faster."

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney called the latest data "another kick in the gut."

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Despite the lackluster numbers, the Glassdoor survey indicates that layoffs may be slowing down. Reports by employees of cutbacks or planned layoffs at their firms was at its lowest (38 percent) since Glassdoor began its quarterly survey in late 2008.

Samantha Zupan, community expert at Glassdoor, told CBS News, "While we've been on this roller coaster in terms of jobs information, it's starting to feel just a little bit better - and who knows where that goes from here, given we may be on a high point and heading down back again? But as of late, I think that the feelings that unemployed job seekers have been having are that it's a little bit brighter of a picture right now."

On Thursday, a CareerBuilder survey of nearly 2,300 hiring managers and human resource professionals found that one-third of employers (34 percent) added full-time, permanent hires in the second quarter of 2012 - up 33 percent from the first quarter and up from 29 percent one year ago.

In addition, 44 percent of private sector employers reported that they plan to hire full-time, permanent staff in the second half of 2012 - an increase of nine percentage points over the second half of 2011.

Among the sectors still cutting? The federal government, which lost 7,000 jobs in June.

CareerBuilder's Mid-Year Job Forecast

There is much more caution among those with jobs about the conditions they are facing at their workplace. In the GlassDoor survey, the percentage of employees who expect a raise or cost-of-living increase over the next year is 40 percent, down three percentage points since last quarter.

Their company outlook is also mixed: 45 percent expect their companies to improve during the next six months. 45 percent expect it to stay the same, and 10 percent expect it to get worse.

Both surveys were conducted by Harris Interactive.

[Dancing-in-the-Streets]

by joesapper
TO Dancing-in-fog
Have you told your buds on the streets to turn over their drug money to obama , after all obama has requested that money in wedding gifts be surrendered to him , AND THAT IS FACT .
---------------------------
A "fact" that you've spun very tight there Joe!
All there is to it is, there is an option on the campaign website where if you WANT to, you could ask your wedding guests to donate to the campaign rather than give gifts. Totally voluntary! To some people, support of a politician they believe in, is like supporting the country they love!

[WiseAsOwl]

Survey Shows Sign of Hope????? Shows what?? Perhaps it shows that the best hope is for Obama to go.... and Romney to take over... Is that what you mean??? CBS!!?? Come on!! That's like trying to list the positive things about a train wreck...... Aaaa.. You aren't, perhaps, trying a little TOO HARD to get Obama re-elected, are you???

[wfw3536]

Amazing that CBS will spin this as being positive, when we are heading into another possible recession just like Europe. Try to explain this to anyone of the 13 million folks looking for a job or the millions of other folks who are underemployed and just hanging on as they watch the value of their homes drop by 40 to 50%. This article reads like Obama comment a couple weeks ago that the manufacturing segment of our economy is doing fine. This administration has wasted almost a trillion dollars of failed stimulus money on all those shovel ready jobs. We need a president that has some experience in the business sector.

[ludvig1-2009]

Repuglicans see only what they want to see. They've been Repuglicans since they turned the voting age and have not opened their minds to any other points of view. Me, I was a Repuglican, but am what I'd call a true Reagan Democrat. Reagan turned me into a Democrat when he came up with lines like "Tax the man behind the tree", because I knew the man behind the tree was our kids and grandkids. Yes, the Repuglican party, the party that doesn't want to pay for wars since the likes of Ike and Lincoln, who actually started the income tax system to pay for his war, have become a stinky pile of dung in my book.

[RichardGGG]

I'm still surprised at the length that outlets like CBS will go to in an effort to put a positive spin on a story like this.

The Obama administration has failed -- miserably -- to deliver on the promises it made regarding job creation. It's a fact that fewer Americans are working now than when Obama took office.

There is no way to put a credible positive spin on the economic performance of this administration. Try as you might guys, but you only look desperate in doing so.

[Dancing-in-the-Streets]

2010 elections were all about JOBS! JOBS! JOBS! -The repubs got control, so where are they???

[luadda22]

Dancing, the Republicans just took control of the House. When was the last time you saw the Dem controled Senate do anything. Remember it takes them both to pass something.

[Dancing-in-the-Streets]

Its really catchy! : )

https://www.facebook.com/groups/180025785402311/members/#!/

[Dancing-in-the-Streets]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_d9mntKvGM

[Ulgnud]

Americans have been promised job growth for almost four years now. No more mealy mouth platitudes and lies. Jobs now. Out in November 2012.

[askagain]

Hope doesn't put food on the table. When someone is out of work, chances are good that the income lost by not working can never be made=up. Add to that the fear of the unknown, not being able to pay bills, possible marital discord, and having to say no to your children, being unemployed must be anything but fun for most people. We don't need hope. We need to see improvement. And the quicker the better.

[Dreadnut]

There's always a silver lining to bad news when a Democrat is president : )

[CaptainSmollett]

Leave it to CBS to put a good spin on a dismal jobs report.
If there is any "silver lining", it is the anticipation that perhaps Obama will be defeated in November and we can all get back to business.