MOST JOBHOLDERS CONTENT, POLL SAYS
By MICHAEL R. KAGAY
Published: September 4, 1989
Most full-time workers in the United States say they are satisfied with their jobs at least to some degree, but workers born since World War II, who entered the work force since 1960, are much less satisfied than older workers, a Gallup Poll says.
Overall, 28 percent of the full-time workers interviewed said they were ''completely satisfied'' with their job, while 60 percent said they were ''mostly satisfied,'' 9 percent said they were ''mostly dissatisfied'' and 3 percent said they were ''completely dissatisfied.'' Surveys often show this bent toward satisfaction, since unhappy workers are often able to change jobs.
But when it came to specifics, significant minorities - 20 to 30 percent of the full-time workers in the poll - said they were dissatisfied with some aspects of their jobs, including the amount of money they earned, their chances for promotion, the amount of pressure from their job, and their health insurance and other benefits. Not Related to Income, Poll Says
The overall level of job satisfaction was not related to income, and the generation gap in job satisfaction was not a consequence of any differences in income or seniority between older and younger workers, according to analysts at the Gallup organization.
The division was between workers over and under 50 years of age. Most of the older workers were children in the Depression and entered the work force in the 1940's or 1950's. Most of the younger workers, born since World War II, entered the work force in the 1960's, 1970's or 1980's, and for the most part they have known only economic expansion.
The national poll, conducted by telephone and based on 697 adults employed full-time, was conducted July 18-21 and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points. It was prepared to be made public on Labor Day.
Of full-time workers over 50, 44 percent said they were completely satisfied with their job. This was almost twice the level expressed by younger generations of workers. Among workers 30 to 49 years old, 25 percent said they were completely satisfied, while among workers 18 to 29 years old just 24 percent said they were completely satisfied. Of Attitudes Toward Work
Regarding a different attitude toward work, the survey also found that 58 percent of all full-time workers said they got ''a sense of identity'' from their job, while 39 percent said their job was just what they ''do for a living.''
This sense of personal identification with one's work was in turn linked to job satisfaction. Workers who said they derived a sense of identity from their work were almost twice as likely to be completely satisfied with their job; 34 percent of them said they were completely satisfied. Of those who said their job was just an economic necessity, only 19 percent were completely satisfied.
Among full-time workers there was a similar proportion of members of each age group saying they gained identity from their job.