Americans Have Not Regained Pre-Recession Job Satisfaction: Gallup

The American economy might be recovering, but the Americans themselves aren't feeling the satisfaction.

A new poll released today by Gallup, based upon the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, found that 87.5 percent of workers were content with their jobs in April. And while that's up from the low of 86.9 percent in July and August of last year, it remains below the peak reached in February 2008, when 89.4 percent of workers said they themselves were satisfied with their job.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the nation’s highest-income workers and senior citizen workers generally reported the highest levels of job satisfaction. On the other end, it was the nation’s youngest and lowest-paid workers -- those who earned $36,000 or less per year -- that were least content with their work.

Gallup witnessed levels of job satisfaction among those surveyed fall most steeply among the nation's less-educated workers and Latinos. Among those without a high school diploma, those satisfied with their jobs dropped to 84 percent from 86.5 percent in 2008. Latino workers saw an even larger drop, as the percentage fell to 84.9 percent from 87.5 percent three years ago.

Black workers have been among the least content with their work, historically. But job satisfaction in the last three years has actually stood virtually unchanged, despite the Black unemployment rate sitting above 15 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Indeed, over the last three years, Black workers are the only group whose job satisfaction has increased, to 83 percent from 82.2 percent in 2008.

The racially-stratified breakdown in job satisfaction might have something to do with heavy concentration of Blacks and Latinos in lower-wage jobs. In the first quarter of 2011, the median weekly earning of white workers was $774, while the median weekly earnings of black workers was $604 and Latinos $549, respectively, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index measures wellbeing in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Gallup's tracking of job satisfaction since January 2008:

Comments

[Tiffany Harris]

10:16 PM on 07/04/2011

It makes sense to me that job satisfaction still isn't as high as pre-recession. People have fewer choices in positions, and therefore may be forced to take something that they don't thoroughly enjoy.
I'm definitely in that situation. I don't really like my job, which shows in the office. That leads to being unappreciated and disliked and therefore poor job satisfaction. I'm currently trying to improve the situation, using tips from "Reboot Your Career" by Peter Fogel - http://www.reinventyourselfnow.com/reboot-your-career
It's slowly but surely getting better!

[sonoffestus]

10:53 PM on 06/03/2011

Give it 15 more years, it may tick upward.

[Robert Cantor]

06:53 PM on 06/01/2011

We havn't regained pre-Recession Job Satisfaction because we are not Post-Recession.

[mrsm00the]

10:19 AM on 06/01/2011

You think the people with jobs are dissatisfied? You should talk to the people that don't have one.

[4State]

10:04 AM on 06/01/2011

"You should just be grateful that you have a job.."

"There are a hundred people out there who would be only too happy to do your job"

"You'll take those extra full-time duties from laid off co-workers who we are not replacing and like it"

"Time for your annual job evaluation- and oh yes, no cost of living or any raise again this year, just as the last several. Need to make room for bonuses for the CEO."

"Trickle down works: you're just joking about your bankruptcy. Man up."

If I did not depend on my health care coverage, I would have left this soul-sucking job years ago. But to take a part-time no benefits job? No. Because that's all that's out there that I've found.

[Kye154]

08:39 AM on 06/01/2011

Job satisfaction? No such thing in America. Unless they are the CEO of some big corporate, many people rate their job OK because they are fearful of becoming unemployed. Americans have become a nation of indentured servants.

[yoozum]

12:03 PM on 06/01/2011

So unless you're the CEO, you probably don't like or are neutral to your job? Really? I think you've been reading Huffington Post a little too much lately. I'm sure there are millions upon millions of Americans who are happy at their jobs, but websites like this won't report on it because it's not fun to read about.

[jdevans]

12:32 AM on 06/02/2011

This website did report it. If you had read the article, you'd know that 87.5% of American workers were content with with their jobs in April.

[bluecollaramerican]

07:39 AM on 06/01/2011

Today's Oxymoron: Job Satisfaction

[frank1946]

06:44 AM on 06/01/2011

American Household Income has been in decline for 12 years.........Federal Spending has been
going up since 1999 as a per cent of Income.........................no mystery to me why we have
not recovered our sense of a better America !

Fed takes to much out thru Debt/Borrowing, reduce spending is only answer to a better future !

[enviro1]

05:41 AM on 06/01/2011

They probably interviewed those on wallstreet and those working for the government. Never underestimate the power of the press to select their database.
This is however, not a 'jobless recovery", why? Because there is no recovery....that was a lie that the administration came up with last June. Don't trust what the government is telling us....just like each one of us was supposed to save $2500.00 per family this year (2011).....There are no jobs available.....Mc Donald's made headlines two months ago when they hired 50,000 people nationwide, they simply took those hours from current employees to help the administration out for granting them a waiver from the job killing healthcare bill.

This administration and last, was/are all about big corporations, greed, corruption and the international redistribution of both wealth and our jobs.

[Ylmaz Kaba]

05:01 AM on 06/01/2011

Many people rate their companies as "OK", which is an option in the Gallup poll.
http://news12.blog.ac/2011/06/01/americans-have-not-regained/

[MiddleMolly]

04:52 AM on 06/01/2011

Who did they interview? Did they just ask people that one question? These numbers are amazingly high.

If you look at a company rating site like glassdoor, the "satisfied"s stop at about the top 50 rated companies, meaning that people aren't that satisfied at the rest of the companies. Many people rate their companies as "OK", which is an option in the Gallup poll.

[solvseus]

03:39 AM on 06/01/2011

I'm surprised it's that high, people must be just happy to have a job at this point, or are at least saying they are.

[John Ashby]

01:59 AM on 06/01/2011

88% are satisfied with their jobs because they are lucky enough to have jobs. Would I like a higher paying job? Of course I would. Would I like to be unemployed? No, I would not. I guess I will just have to be satisfied with the job that I do have.

[dporterdvd]

01:47 AM on 06/01/2011

If 87.5% of people interviewed were satisfied with their job, they must have just interviewed people in upper management, movie stars and professional athletes.

[MikeyJaii]

10:30 PM on 05/31/2011

That's simply because American Companies are still overseas.