New workplace happiness index finds workers largely satisfied with jobs

Happy at work?

If so, you’ve got plenty of company, according to the first-ever CNBC/SurveyMonkey Workplace Happiness Index. The joint project is part of CNBC’s @Work franchise.

CNBC reports that the results of this first survey, which aims to measure how Americans feel about their jobs across five key categories—pay, opportunities for advancement, recognition, autonomy and meaning—come in at “an optimistic 71” out of 100.

But that doesn’t mean there’s no room for improvement. In fact, while 85 percent of the professionals surveyed say they’re very or somewhat satisfied with their jobs, all is not rosy in employment-land. Just 9 percent of workers thought all 5 categories deserved a top rating. In fact, 27 percent say they are not well paid and 30 percent have seriously considered quitting their job in the last 3 months.

While most workers say they’re keeping up with tech and innovation in the workplace, they don’t necessarily see themselves as being on the cutting edge. In fact, just barely a third see themselves as “ahead of the curve” with tech, but older workers feel even worse about it. Overall, 60 percent say they are “about average” in their ability to keep up, while 7 percent see themselves as falling behind.

And 27 percent see tech as a threat to their jobs, despite the fact that 71 percent say they trust their direct supervisors to prepare them for tech changes on the job.

Then there are trust issues, with a substantial majority—65 percent—of those not trusting their direct supervisors to give them career advancement opportunities saying that they’ve considered quitting their jobs in the last 3 months.

In contrast, just 17 percent of those who say they trust their supervisors “a lot” say they’ve considered quitting.

Only 69 percent of women say they’re well paid, compared with 76 percent of men, and only 28 percent of women say that they’re managers or above, compared with 36 percent of men.

And when asked “what is the one change that would most improve your job satisfaction,” 41 percent say “higher salary”; 14 percent want more training or learning opportunities and even among those who admit to being “very well paid,” 18 percent still say a higher salary would most improve their job satisfaction.

Read more: 

• What’s driving employees’ job satisfaction?
• 2 trends that will transform employee rewards programs in 2019
• Why culture matters in creating a Total Rewards strategy