About the 2007 Spherion Emerging Workforce Study
More than 10 years ago, Spherion Corporation consulted with international polling firm Harris Interactive to launch the Emerging Workforce^® Study, a research initiative designed to provide a comprehensive portrait of changes in the American workforce in the context of on-going social and economic events. Since that time, Spherion^® has continued to track the growth of an emergent workforce and the resulting implications for U.S. employers.

In subsequent studies, Spherion experts have discovered that while attitudes and opinions of the workforce were changing, the majority of employers were reluctant to adopt a style of management which would allow them to attract and retain top talent. The most recent Study updates and expands on previous workforce research published by Spherion in 1997, 1999, 2003 and 2005.

Methodology
The 2007 Spherion Emerging Workforce Study was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive^® on behalf of Spherion Corporation between March 5-16, 2007 among 3,152 employed adults, aged 18 years and older, was interviewed. Employed adults were defined as those working 30 or more hours per week Results were weighted as needed for age, sex, race/ethnicity, income, education and region were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting adjusted for respondents’ propensity to be online. The 2005 Study took place between March 21 and April 27, 2005 among 502 HR executives and was weighted to reflect the distribution of employees across company size based on information provided by Dunn & Bradstreet.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words “margin of error” as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the U.S. adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to be invited to participate in the Harris Interactive online research panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.