While the unemployment rate has started to show a slight decrease to 9.7%, and as companies appear to be shedding fewer jobs, there's increased belief that the worst of the recession is behind us and that the country is on the road to recovery. Tied to this movement, however, is heightened speculation that the year ahead may bring about a renewed "war for talent" and that the job market will start to see a shift in power from employer to employee. One of the key factors that could jumpstart this transition is employee attitudes towards their current jobs - that is, are American workers still in love with what they do or are they looking for a change?

According to the annual online Valentine's Day American Workplace Insights Survey from Adecco Group North America, part of the world's largest recruitment and workforce solutions provider conducted by Harris Interactive, attitudes have shifted from a year ago as fewer U.S. workers (1) (72%) love their job just as much or more now than they did in 2009 (78%). In fact, only 39% feel the economic situation has caused them to appreciate their jobs more - a significant dip compared to more than half (55%) of workers feeling this way a year ago. In addition, workers' acceptance to work harder to avoid layoffs (17%) and willingness to work longer hours (19%) are slightly fading compared to 2009 (20% and 21% respectively).

Additional survey findings include:

•          Gen Y is Nervous and Falling Out of Love with their Jobs: More than a quarter (26%) of Gen Y workers are nervous about the instability of their job and 27% love their job less than last year, nearly a 10% jump over the 16% who felt this way last year.



•          Younger Generations are Inclined to Go Back to School: Gen X and Gen Y workers impacted by the economic situation feel that loving their job is less important to them today than it was a year ago (17% and 18% this year versus 14% and 21% in 2009 respectively). In fact, 20% of Gen X and 17% of Gen Y workers are thinking about going back to school.



•     Monday Brings More Indifference than Excitement: Keeping with 2009 trends, only a small percent (11%) of workers dread the beginning of the work week while 19% say that they are excited to get going. Workers do, however, appear closely divided between an appreciation to have a job at the start of the week (38%) versus a general indifference (31%).



•     Gen X Most Likely to "Do Over" their Career if They Could: If workers had the option to start their careers over again, about half (51%) would change their current profession, particularly Gen X workers. Fifty-six percent of them said they would start over compared to only 38% of older adults "Silent Generation."



•     Less Appreciation and Confidence in Management: Similarly to 2009, workers' perception of company leadership continued to wane as only 7% of workers noted the economic situation had positively impacted their confidence in their executive team versus 90% in 2009. Additionally, there's less appreciation for bosses as only 10% of workers appreciate their boss more in 2010 as a result of the economic situation versus 16% feeling this way last year.