Employees are increasingly unhappy with their workplaces and benefits packages, a new study finds. In fact, ratings are at their lowest levels since 2008.

An online survey of 1,621 working adults, conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of insurance provider Unum, finds:

• Less than one-half (49 percent) of U.S. workers rate their employer as an excellent or very good place to work.

• Forty-seven percent of employees who are offered benefits by their employer rate their benefits as excellent or very good. This is the lowest rating of benefits in six years of conducting this research.

• Employees don't believe they are getting the information they need about the benefits they are being offered. Only 33 percent of employees who were asked to review benefits in the previous year rated the benefits education they received as excellent or very good—a drop from 2012 and a reversal to the upward trend in ratings since 2009.

• Nearly three in 10 (28 percent) rate their benefits education as fair or poor.

These results point to the need for better education about benefits, said Bill Dalicandro, vice president of the consumer solutions group at Unum.

“With health care reform and other changes in employee benefit plans, employees have so much information to digest right now,” he said. “Employers can play such a great role in helping their employees understand their options so they will feel comfortable making benefits decisions.”