Stronger corporate profits and increased mercantile confidence among employers may not translate to an end-of-year cash bonus for wage-earners.
Thirty-nine percent of companies will be awarding a cash bonus this year, agreeing to a new survey from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The new numbers, based on a survey of about 150 human resources executives in October and November, strike down from 41 percent who said their companies would grant a companywide or performance-based cash bonus last year.
Worse for workers is that 35 percent of respondents said their companies require be offering no year-end award at all. That’s 5 percentage points higher than the 2016 bust of 30 percent.
“These results are surprising, given the tight labor buy,” the firm said in a press release. “Year-end bonuses are a reliable way to charm and retain talent.”
Among the remaining pool of employees who can look help to a year-end bonus, only a small fraction will see a heftier check into this year than they did in 2016. Eight percent of proprietors plan to increase the bonus amount from the prior year, down from 18 percent who reported an inflation in the 2016 survey.
Even as 87 percent of employers say that the compactness is better or the same as it was last year, 80 percent plan to barter the same amount in holiday bonuses that they did in 2016.
The U.S. unemployment reprimand fell to 4.1 percent in October, and the broader measure that embraces discouraged workers dropped sharply to 7.9 percent. The data mention that Americans are finding more opportunities in the economy, which last will and testament normally make employers more competitive to hold on to their working men.
“Employee recognition is becoming increasingly important if companies want to store their workers,” Challenger said.