"Take This Job and …"
Lynn Franco
Conference Board, February 2005.
According to this Conference Board survey, employee satisfaction has declined across all demographics over the last 10 years. The study found that only half of all Americans are satisfied with their jobs, down from nearly 60 percent in 1995, and only 14 percent are “very satisfied.”
The largest decline in satisfaction was among workers 35-44 years of age (from 60.9 percent to 49.2 percent). Employees between the ages of 45-54 years of age reported the second largest decline, from 57.3 percent to 47.7 percent, and the lowest level of overall job satisfaction. Workers aged 65 and up were the most satisfied demographic, though they too saw a decline in satisfaction from 60.8 to 58 percent.
Employees expressed lower levels of dissatisfaction regarding virtually every aspect of their jobs, from economic factors such as job security to fringe benefits to the work environment. Respondents reported the lowest levels of satisfaction with their employers’ promotion policies and bonus plans – 21 and 20 percent respectively. Training and wages also scored poorly.
The study proposes five remedies to increasing job dissatisfaction:
The Conference Board surveyed 5000 households for the study.