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More Employees Spending Thanksgiving with Coworkers than Ever Before, Finds Annual CareerBuilder Thanksgiving Survey

  • Twenty-eight percent of workers say they celebrate Thanksgiving with coworkers either in or out of the office, up from 20 percent last year
  • More than 1 in 5 employees (22 percent) have to work on Thanksgiving
  • Houston, Dallas and Miami continue to lead other major cities in percentage of workers that spend the holiday with coworkers


CHICAGO and ATLANTA – November 21, 2015 – Employees appear to be growing closer to those at work, or find it more difficult to break away from the office for Thanksgiving. More than one in four workers (28 percent) say they celebrate Thanksgiving with coworkers either in or out of the office – a substantial increase over 20 percent in 2015 and 19 percent in 2014.

A new CareerBuilder Thanksgiving survey was conducted nationally online by Harris Poll from August 11 to September 7, 2016 and included more than 3,300 workers across industries and company sizes.

Workers Who Celebrate Thanksgiving with Coworkers By:

U.S. Markets with the Largest Economies

  • Houston: 44 percent
  • Dallas: 36 percent
  • Miami: 35 percent
  • Atlanta: 32 percent
  • New York: 27 percent
  • Los Angeles: 26 percent
  • Washington DC: 22 percent
  • Chicago: 20 percent
  • Boston: 19 percent
  • Philadelphia: 18 percent

Region

  • South: 37 percent
  • West: 27 percent
  • Midwest: 23 percent
  • Northeast: 22 percent

Industry

  • Health care: 33 percent
  • Retail: 32 percent
  • Sales: 32 percent
  • Transportation: 30 percent
  • Manufacturing: 26 percent

Diverse Groups

  • Hispanic workers: 35 percent
  • LGBT workers: 35 percent
  • African American workers: 33 percent
  • Asian workers: 31 percent
  • Disabled workers: 27 percent

This compares to 29 percent of non-diverse workers (defined as white, straight, non-disabled male under 50) vs. 19 percent in 2015.

Age

  • 18-24: 36 percent
  • 25-34: 35 percent
  • 35-44: 27 percent
  • 45-54: 25 percent
  • 55+: 20 percent

Home for the Holiday, not Vacation

Only 14 percent of workers say they take off Thanksgiving week for vacation; and 22 percent of workers say they have to work on Thanksgiving (on par with last year), with leisure and hospitality workers leading the way.

  • Leisure and hospitality: 52 percent
  • Retail: 47 percent
  • Sales: 36 percent
  • Health care: 32 percent
  • Transportation: 30 percent

Would You Rather…

When asked if they’d rather spend Thanksgiving Day with coworkers or family, 9-in-10 chose their family – on par with last year.

  • Family: 91 percent
  • Coworkers: 1 percent
  • Neither: 8 percent

Survey Methodology

This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder among 3,336 U.S. workers (employed full-time, not self-employed, government and non-government) between August 11 and September 7, 2016. Percentages for some questions are based on a subset, based on their responses to certain questions. With a pure probability sample of 3,336, one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have sampling errors of +/- 1.70 percentage points. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies.

About CareerBuilder®

CareerBuilder is the only end-to-end human capital management company covering the entire candidate lifecycle and employee lifecycle for businesses. As the global leader in its industry, CareerBuilder specializes in cutting-edge HR software as a service to help companies with every step of talent acquisition and management. CareerBuilder works with top employers across industries, providing solutions for talent and labor market analytics, job distribution, candidate sourcing, tracking, onboarding, HRIS, benefits administration and compliance. It also operates leading job sites around the world. Owned by TEGNA Inc. (NYSE:TGNA), Tribune Media (NYSE:TRCO) and McClatchy (NYSE:MNI), CareerBuilder and its subsidiaries operate in the United States, Europe, South America, Canada and Asia. For more information, visit www.careerbuilder.com.

Media Contact

Rob Zaldivar
312.698.1042
rob.zaldivar@careerbuilder.com
http://www.twitter.com/CareerBuilderPR


CareerBuilder Media Contact
For all media inquiries and interview requests, contact:

Jennifer Grasz
(P) 773-527-1164
(E) jennifer.grasz@careerbuilder.com