One Half of Sales Professionals are in The Market for a New Job This Year, According to CareerBuilder.Com Survey

CHICAGO, February 1, 2005 – Sales professionals are searching for better career payoffs in 2005. One half of sales professionals expect to have a new job by the end of the year, and 36 percent say their job prospects have already improved in the last six months, according to a recent Careerbuilder.com survey. The survey, "2005 Outlook: Sales Workers," was conducted from November 22, 2004 to December 2, 2004 and included more than 150 sales professionals.

The top two factors motivating sales professionals to jump ship fall under compensation and career progress. Sixty percent of sales professionals say they did not receive a raise in 2004 and 19 percent report being overlooked for a promotion. It is not surprising that 46 percent state their paychecks are too light and one-third feel opportunities to move up the company ladder are not adequate.

"The number of sales jobs on CareerBuilder.com nearly doubled year over year in 2004 to more than 70,000 as companies invested back into growing their businesses," said Mary Delaney, Chief Sales Officer for CareerBuilder.com. "Sales people — especially top performers — know they’re in demand and are less apt to stay if they can get a better deal somewhere else. CareerBuilder.com sees more than 2 million job searches in sales every month."

In their quest for a new position, sales professionals value the stability of an organization, its business ethics, and its reputation for fairness. Stability is key for sales professionals, especially considering that more than half say they endure a slight to constant threat of a layoff at their current jobs.

The relationships sales professionals have with their corporate leaders and direct supervisors are critical in shaping a positive, motivating work experience. Thirty-five percent of sales workers are dissatisfied with the performance of their corporate leaders and 33 percent feel their supervisors are ineffective.

"It’s crucial for businesses to have sales people who feel secure and enthusiastic about their jobs, since these people work in a company’s front line and deal directly with customers," Delaney said. "Forty-four percent of sales professionals say they do not look forward to coming to work. This can have serious consequences for their employers as unenthusiastic sales people bring in less new and repeat business."

For more information about CareerBuilder.com’s surveys, visit http://www.careerbuilder.com/Share/AboutUs/pr/

About the Survey
The new CareerBuilder.com survey, "2005 Outlook: Sales Workers," was conducted from November 22, 2004 to December 2, 2004 of more than 150 sales professionals. To collect data for the survey, CareerBuilder.com commissioned SurveySite to use an e-mail methodology whereby individuals who are members of SurveySite Web Panel were randomly selected and approached by e-mail invitation to participate in the online survey. The results of this survey are accurate within +/-7.56 percentage points (19 times out of 20).

About CareerBuilder.com
CareerBuilder.com is the nation's leading online job network with more than 15 million unique visitors and over 600,000 jobs. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), Tribune Company (NYSE: TRB), and Knight Ridder, Inc. (NYSE: KRI), the company offers a vast online and print network to help job seekers connect with employers. CareerBuilder.com powers the online career centers for more than 450 partners that reach national, local, industry, diversity and niche audiences. These include more than 130 newspapers and leading portals such as America Online and MSN. More than 30,000 of the nation's top employers take advantage of CareerBuilder.com's easy job postings, 10 million-plus resumes, comprehensive screening tools and more. Millions of job seekers visit the site every month to search for opportunities, sign up for automatic email job alerts, and get advice on job hunting and career management. For more information, visit http://www.careerbuilder.com

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

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