Workers consider their jobs ideal. No, seriously.

Try to have a conversation about your job without complaining about your boss or griping about the little things just eat at your nerves. Like peanut butter and jelly or Ricky and Lucy, work and complaints belong together. Due to the nature of my job, I see a lot of data about workers and job satisfaction. More often than not workers have a list of grievances to address with their employers. Factor in the recent recession, which burdened many workers with extra responsibility after layoffs, and you’ve got one disgruntled workforce.

Or so I thought.

Color me foolish upon reading that 70 percent of workers consider their current jobs ideal, according to a new Gallup Daily survey. Seventy. Seven. Zero. Maybe I’m naïve but that number surprised me.

Not surprising, however, is the correlation between income and viewing a job as ideal. Of workers who earn $12,000 or less, only 57 percent think they work in a job that is ideal for them. For workers earning $120,000 or more, the number jumps to 77 percent.

Workers in certain industries are also much more likely to consider their jobs ideal than others. For example, business owners, farmers and professionals (think of doctors, lawyers, teachers and the like) think they’re in an ideal position with 87, 82 and 79 percent respectively. This shouldn’t be surprising, I suppose. If you’re a business owner, you actively began your own venture, so chances are the job is the direct result of your efforts. Professionals often go to school and train for several years, so they’ve been preparing for this position. However, service, clerical and manufacturing workers had the lowest views of being in ideal workplaces, as they all hovered near 60 percent.

Age factors into the equation of ideals, too. If you’re 18-29 years old, only 52 percent of you think your current job is deal. But if you’re 50-65 years old, then 78 percent of you are in an ideal job. Again, not surprising. At the start of your career, you’re trying to accrue experience and probably don’t have the professional capital to land the job of your dreams. By the time you’re nearing retirement, hopefully you’ve been able to work toward the job you’ve always wanted or that best suits you.

I recommend reading all the survey results because there are a lot of ways to slice the data and see different patterns. It’s also interesting to think that, even now, when employees are struggling to get their work done because they’re doing the jobs of several people in this economy, more than half of all demographics view their jobs as ideal. Overall, people with jobs are doing what they think is right for them.

So how about you—what’s the ideal job for you? Are you in one? Did you previously have one? If you’re looking for one, what are the qualifications necessary to make it ideal? Let us know!