Well-Being, Insecurity and the Decline of American Job Satisfaction (1999)
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@MISC{Blanchflower99well-being,insecurity,
author = {David G. Blanchflower and Andrew J. Oswald},
title = {Well-Being, Insecurity and the Decline of American Job Satisfaction},
year = {1999}
}
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Abstract
The paper studies job satisfaction and stress levels in the advanced nations. There are seven main findings. First, the great majority of workers in the industrial democracies appear to be remarkably content with their jobs. The old Dickensian idea that work subjugates people is apparently not supported by the data. Second, job satisfaction appears to be gently trending down over time in the United States (among the over-30s, from approximately 56% very satisfied in the 1970s to 48% by the mid-1990s). Third, we show that this fall is not explained by the decline of unions, nor by, as we document, the existence of a slowly growing jobinsecurity in the US. Fourth, the cross-section patterns in job satisfaction are similar from one nation to another. Reported well-being is higher among women, the self-employed, the young and the old (not the middle-aged), supervisors, and particularly those with secure jobs. Fifth, after controlling for personal characteristics, we produce a ranking of job satisfaction across nations. Ireland is top. Sixth, workers across the European Union say that compared with five years earlier they are under much increased stress and pressure at work. Seventh, when a standard mental stress measure is used to examine workers' well-being across 15 nations, Ireland and Sweden emerge as the least-stressed countries, and Italy, France and Spain appear the most-stressed.
Keyphrases
job satisfaction american job satisfaction paper study job satisfaction sweden emerge industrial democracy great majority old dickensian idea secure job main finding personal characteristic cross-section pattern stress level standard mental stress measure united state advanced nation european union least-stressed country
