Finally, there’s good news for U.S. employers and their employees: nearly half of workers are satisfied with their jobs. The Conference Board’s Job Satisfaction survey reports that job satisfaction is at its highest level since 2005 and U.S. workers’ positive attitudes toward their jobs have increased every year since 2010.
The survey’s results are based on workers’ perceptions of their current role and workplace environment, and the data is collected as part of The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Survey.
“The rise in workers’ job satisfaction is directly influenced by labor market improvements, and the latest annual job satisfaction trends mirror overall gains in the labor market,” says Michelle Kan, associate director, knowledge organization, and a co-author of the report. “The rapidly declining unemployment rate, combined with increased hiring, job openings and quits, signals a seller’s market, where the employer demand for workers is greater than the available supply.”
Gad Levanon, chief economist, North America, adds, “When the labor market tightens, employers have a more difficult time finding enough qualified and willing job candidates to fill available job openings. In these labor market conditions, workers are more satisfied with their jobs in several different ways. These include layoff rates and greater job security, more job opportunities and more job switching, increased wages and increased employer efforts to retain workers.”
The Conference Board survey results on job satisfaction are part of a long-running comprehensive data set going back to 1987. It found that workers are most satisfied with their colleagues (58.9 percent), interest in their work (58.8 percent), their supervisors (56.8 percent), the commute (56.7 percent) and the physical workspace (55.6 percent).
Workers’ lowest satisfaction levels are in regards to aspects of their work dependent on evaluated performance. The five job components with the lowest satisfaction in the survey are promotion policies (23.8 percent), bonus plans (24.3 percent), the performance review process (28.7 percent), educational/job training programs (29.8 percent) and recognition/acknowledgement (31.5 percent). Satisfaction with the potential for future growth is also modest at 33.8 percent.
