Worker Satisfaction With Job Security at a New High

With the unemployment rate and layoffs down sharply in the last year, most U.S. workers are no longer worried about getting a dreaded pink slip.

A new Gallup poll Wednesday shows 58 percent of workers, full- or part-time, are “completely satisfied” with their job security. That’s up from 51 percent last year, and it’s the highest percentage since that question was first asked in 1993, when 46 percent expressed such strong confidence that they wouldn’t be laid off.

But that doesn’t mean Americans are feeling happier about their jobs. Compared with last year, the survey found zero increase in the share of workers completely satisfied with the stress level of their jobs, promotion opportunities and flexibility of hours.

And many workers are decidedly dissatisfied with their current pay. Even as the jobless rate has fallen sharply, to 6.2 percent in July from 7.3 percent a year earlier, federal data show a persistent absence of real wage gains.

Some economists and employers are expecting broader wage increases to come, but the Gallup poll shows that for now, that’s more hope than reality.

Only 31 percent of workers said they were completely satisfied with the amount of their current pay, up just 2 percentage points from a year ago.

This article appeared in print in the August 20th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.