Under 25 years old? 64% of you are dissatisfied with your jobs.

Posted by brie , Jan, 2010 @ 7:08 am

Americans who are lucky enough to be employed during this recession are reporting the lowest job satisfaction rates in years, according to MSNBC.com. The whopper is that 64% of workers under age 25 report being dissatisfied with their jobs. Only 45% of all Americans report being satisfied with their jobs. And apparently this dissatisfaction has been increasing for over two decades.

TWO DECADES! So this can’t be linked to a particular generation’s workplace views, or an economic downturn, or any specific reason. It’s got to be something to do with the way we work in America. Let’s take a look at the reasons these workers site for being dissatisfied.

Why are works so unhappy?

- Don’t think the job is interesting

- Income hasn’t kept up with inflation (“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.”)

- Health insurance premiums are reducing take-home pay (“The average employee contribution for single-coverage medical care benefits rose from $48 a month to $76 a month between 1999 and 2006.”)

- Lack of teamwork/unity/cohesion (“Workers under 25 expressed the highest level of dissatisfaction. Roughly 64 percent of workers under 25 say they were unhappy in their jobs.”)

What does this mean for the American workforce?

This survey was first conducted in 1987, and at that point, 61% of workers said they were satisfied with their jobs, so 16% fewer Americans are satisifed with their work today. Worker dissatisfaction now can have long term effects on the workforce. People become complacent, less innovative, less competitive, and less productive. People are also less likely to share information with their coworkers, including skills and knowledge, because they just don’t care, so important know-how gets lost along the way.

Other interesting findings from the survey:

- “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.”

- “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-one percent say their are satisfied with their boss. That’s down from 55 percent in 2008 and around 60 percent two decades ago.”

Tags: are you happy, be happy, job satisfaction, the american workforce, worker satisfaction, workers are unhappy