Job satisfaction lowest level in 22 years

Only 45 per cent of Americans are satisfied with their jobs, down from 61 per cent in 1987 when the survey, conducted by The Conference Board, was first conducted.

Job dissatisfaction spanned all age groups, with employees under the age of 25 expressing the highest level of dissatisfac tion ever recorded by the survey for that age group. Baby boomers have also become in creasingly unhappy with their work with only 46 per cent satisfied with their job today in comparison to 60 per cent 20 years ago.

“Baby boomers will compose a quarter of the US workforce in eight years, and since 1987 we’ve watched them increasingly los ing faith in the workplace,” said Linda Bar rington, managing director, Human Capital, The Conference Board.

The drop in job satisfaction between 1987 and 2009 covers all categories in the survey, from interest in work (down 19 per cent) to job security (down 18 per cent) and crosses all four of the key drivers of em ployee engagement: job design, organisa tional health, managerial quality, and ex trinsic rewards.

“Challenging and meaningful work is vi tally important to engaging American work ers,” said John Gibbons, program director of employee engagement research and services at The Conference Board. “Wide spread job dissatisfaction negatively affects employee behaviour and retention, which can impact enterprise-level success.”

The research, based on a survey of 5000 US households, also revealed that 22 per cent of respondents said they didn’t expect to be in their current job in a year.