Most Americans Are Happy With Their Jobs, Gallup Poll Finds

Most Americans are satisfied with their work, and slightly fewer than last year fear they might lose their jobs in the next six months, according to a poll released today.

Fifty-nine percent said they are extremely or quite satisfied at work, whereas just 6% said they are extremely or quite angry, according to the poll conducted by the Gallup Organization. Twenty-seven percent said they are very concerned or somewhat concerned about losing their jobs, compared with 32% last year.

“Given corporate downsizing and the demands that come with strategies to increase corporate competitiveness, the finding that the labor force still has very positive workplace attitudes . . . is quite surprising,” Sigal Barsade, a survey author and Yale School of Management professor, said in a statement. But, Barsade said, “I do not believe that employers should take this positive relationship as a given, because if employees feel much more pressure than they feel now, this positive mood may not be sustainable.”

According to the poll, women (64%) are happier in their jobs than men (55%), and 53% of women felt it would be difficult to find another job they like, compared with 44% of men.

The phone survey of 1,000 adults working full or part time was commissioned by the Marlin Co. consulting firm of Connecticut and was conducted from July 13 through Aug. 7. The margin of error is 3 percentage points.