Slow and Steady

摘要

Last year, there was a lower than usual response rate— just under 11%—for QP's Salary Survey. It wasn't surprising because the percentage of respondents in 2009 who had reported being unemployed, retired or laid off was 4.9%, a historic high. Given the slow pace of the economic recovery, it was expected that many of those people would not yet have re-entered the workforce a year later. In 2010, the percentage of respondents who reported being unemployed, retired or laid off dropped to 3.1%. This year, it dropped further to 2.7%. Perhaps some of those past respondents have stopped participating, or perhaps it's a sign of the start of an increase in survey response rates that will continue. Table 1 breaks down this year's respondents by employment status.