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Happy jobs: Job satisfaction survey

I’ve been reading the results of a survey that the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center published last year on job satisfaction. The survey is part of the General Social Survey Project, which began in 1972.

Part of the survey shows what jobs are the most satisfying – and which ones are lowest in satisfaction.

Here’s a look at the top ten from each category, and the percentage of survey recipients who expressed satisfaction with that job. (The percentages are part of a larger scoring system that assigned the rankings seen below.)

Happiest jobs:

  1. Clergy (87.2)
  2. Physical therapists (78.1)
  3. Firefighters (80.1)
  4. Education administrators (68.4)
  5. Painters/sculptors (67.3)
  6. Teachers (69.2)
  7. Authors (74.2)
  8. Psychologists (66.9)
  9. Special education teachers (70.1)
  10. Operating engineers (64.1)

Unhappiest jobs:

  1. Roofers (25.3)
  2. Waiters/servers (27.0)
  3. Laborers (21.4)
  4. Bartenders (26.4)
  5. Hand packers and packagers (23.7)
  6. Freight and stock handlers (25.8)
  7. Apparel salespersons (23.9)
  8. Cashiers (25.0)
  9. Food preparers (23.6)
  10. Expediters (37.0)

The “happy jobs” had two interesting trends going on. For one thing, almost all of the jobs were focused on helping others. The second trend? It appears that money doesn’t buy happiness. These jobs make fairly steady salaries, but in most cases modest ones.

The “unhappy jobs” were mainly manual labor jobs and unskilled jobs.

What’s been your happiest job? Your unhappiest one?

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