Americans' job satisfaction falls to record low
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Jan 5, 7:34 AM (ET)
By JEANNINE AVERSA
WASHINGTON (AP) - We can't get no job satisfaction.
Even Americans who are lucky enough to have work in this economy are
becoming more unhappy with their jobs, according to a new survey that found
only 45 percent of Americans are satisfied with their work.
That was the lowest level ever recorded by the Conference Board research
group in more than 22 years of studying the issue. In 2008, 49 percent of
those surveyed reported satisfaction with their jobs.
The drop in workers' happiness can be partly blamed on the worst recession
since the 1930s, which made it difficult for some people to find challenging
and suitable jobs. But worker dissatisfaction has been on the rise for more
than two decades.
"It says something troubling about work in America. It is not about the
business cycle or one grumpy generation," says Linda Barrington, managing
director of human capital at the Conference Board, who helped write the
report, which was released Tuesday.
Workers have grown steadily more unhappy for a variety of reasons:
- Fewer workers consider their jobs to be interesting.
- Incomes have not kept up with inflation.
- The soaring cost of health insurance has eaten into workers' take-home
pay.
If the job satisfaction trend is not reversed, economists say, it could
stifle innovation and hurt America's competitiveness and productivity. And
it could make unhappy older workers less inclined to take the time to share
their knowledge and skills with younger workers.
Nate Carrasco, 26, of Odessa, Texas, says he's been pretty unhappy in most
of his jobs, including his current one at an auto parts store.
"There is no sense of teamwork in most places any more," Carrasco gripes.
When the Conference Board's first survey was conducted in 1987, most workers
- 61 percent - said they were happy in their jobs. The survey of 5,000
households was conducted for the Conference Board by TNS, a global market
research company.
One clue that may explain workers' growing dissatisfaction: Only 51 percent
now find their jobs interesting - another low in the survey's 22 years. In
1987, nearly 70 percent said they were interested in their work.
Workers who find their jobs interesting are more likely to be innovative and
to take the calculated risks and the initiative that drive productivity and
contribute to economic growth, Barrington says.
"What's really disturbing about growing job dissatisfaction is the way it
can play into the competitive nature of the U.S. work force down the road
and on the growth of the U.S. economy - all in a negative way," says Lynn
Franco, another author of the report and director of the Conference Board's
Consumer Research Center.
Conference Board officials and outside economists suggested that weak wage
growth helps explain why workers' unhappiness has been rising for more than
20 years. After growing in the 1980s and 1990s, average household incomes
adjusted for inflation have been shrinking since 2000.
Also, compared with 1980, three times as many workers contribute to the cost
of their health insurance - and those contributions have gone up. The
average employee contribution for single-coverage medical care benefits rose
from $48 a month to $76 a month between 1999 and 2006.
Workers under 25 expressed the highest level of dissatisfaction. Roughly 64
percent of workers under 25 say they were unhappy in their jobs. The
recession has been especially hard on young workers, who face fewer
opportunities now and lower wages, some analysts say.
The most satisfied were those ages 25 to 34, who may see some opportunities
for upward mobility as baby boomers retire. Around 47 percent of workers 25
to 34 say they were happy in their jobs.
Some other key findings of the survey:
- Forty-three percent of workers feel secure in their jobs. In 2008, 47
percent said they feel secure in their jobs, while 59 percent felt that way
in 1987.
- Fifty-six percent say they like their co-workers, slightly less than the
57 percent who said so last year but down from 68 percent in 1987.
- Fifty-six percent say they are satisfied with their commute to work even
as commute times have grown longer over the years. That compares with 54
percent in 2008 and 63 percent in 1987.
- Fifty-one percent say their are satisfied with their boss. That's down
from 55 percent in 2008 and around 60 percent two decades ago.
Carrasco said he wishes his bosses would take time to listen to workers'
ideas - and their difficulties on the job.
"Most of the time they only listen to what their bosses are saying," he
says. "Bosses need to come down to the employee level more and see what
actually goes on, versus what their paperwork tells them is happening in the
stores."
It wouldn't be fair to blame low job satisfaction solely on bad bosses,
Barrington says.
"It is two-way responsibility," she says. "Workers also have to figure out
what they should be doing to be the most engaged in their jobs and the most
productive."
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