According to The Conference Board’s Job Satisfaction 2023 survey, American workers are “more content than ever.” The report found “improved satisfaction across nearly all 26 components—with gains in non-compensation factors like work-life balance outpacing even those from improved pay and benefits.”
In 2022, 62.3% of U.S. workers said they were “satisfied.” That’s up from 60.2% in 2021, and the highest level recorded since 1987, when the survey began.
Job satisfaction “has been rising steadily for over a decade, after hitting an all-time low of 42.6 percent in 2010 following the Great Recession,” according to the Conference Board.
Non-compensation components increased the most compared to 2021, including work/life balance (+5.8%, to 60.1% satisfied), workload (+4.5%, to 55.5%) and performance review process (+4.3%, to 52.6%).
Workers are also more satisfied with compensation. 57.6% of workers said they were satisfied with their wages in 2022, up 2.2% over 2021.
Workers who switched jobs (voluntarily) were the most satisfied. Overall satisfaction among job switchers was 65.7%, 3.6% above non-job switchers.
Hybrid workers were more satisfied than fully remote or fully in-office workers.
Hybrid workers reported being “slightly less satisfied” when it comes to job security, but were “much more satisfied in terms of pay, benefits, and access to training opportunities.”
Women were less satisfied than men across all 26 job satisfaction categories, with overall satisfaction at 60.1%, 3.9% lower than men.
“Job satisfaction was up across the board in 2022—and especially high for workers who switched jobs. While a mild recession in 2023 is likely to ease labor shortages and reduce labor mobility, the impact on job satisfaction may be brief and minor: Demographic trends suggest tight labor markets are here to stay, putting the onus on employers to compete for talent.”
"Leaders gain the most by offering flexible, hybrid work arrangements, and by emphasizing work experience and culture factors such as interesting work, reasonable workloads, and opportunities for career growth.”
Read more via Conference Board
The NFIB’s Small Business Optimism Index fell by 1.1 points in April to 89.0. The top business problems cited by small business respondents were labor quality (24%) and inflation (23%).
Respondents reported elevated plans to fill open positions, with 17% planning to create new jobs in the next three months.
40% reported raising compensation, with a net 21% saying they plan to raise compensation in the next three months.
9% of respondents cited labor costs as their top business problem.
18% of respondents said that supply chain disruptions are still having a significant impact on their business, with another 31% saying they are having a moderate impact.
“Optimism is not improving on Main Street as more owners struggle with finding qualified workers for their open positions. Inflation remains a top concern for small businesses but is showing signs of easing.”
Read more via NFIB
Earlier this month, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that “employers will have until August 30, 2023 to complete the physical inspection of identity and employment eligibility documents for any employee whose Form I-9 was completed virtually pursuant to COVID-19–era temporary flexibility provisions.”
In March 2020, ICE temporarily deferred the requirement for employers to “conduct in-person reviews of employees’ original identity and employment authorization documents.” Since March 2020, employers “have been permitted to review documents virtually or in copy, with the expectation that physical inspection would occur when normal operations resumed.”
In October 2022, DHS and ICE announced that the flexibility provisions would end on July 31, 2023. The Biden administration has since ended the COVID-19 national emergency and public health emergency.
On May 4, authorities said employers will have until August 30 to “perform all required physical examinations of identity and employment eligibility documents for those individuals” hired after March 20, 2020 whose I-9 status was examined virtually or remotely.
Read more via Morgan Lewis, Fragomen
According to a new Mayo Clinic study, doctors say there is a “critical need for employers to address menopause in the workplace.”
The study estimates that symptoms associated with menopause — including hot flashes, night sweats, mood changes, sleep disturbances, joint aches and cognitive difficulties cost “an estimated $1.8 billion in lost work time in the US annually.”
The Mayo Clinic studied 4,400 employed women, and found that 13% said they had "experienced an adverse work outcome tied to menopause symptoms.” 11% said they missed work as a result of their symptoms.
Experts say menopause “has a taboo attached to it,” and as a result, women “often fear bias, discrimination and stigmatization, and therefore may be reluctant to disclose their menopause symptoms to their workplace managers and others.”
The study found that employers recognizing women's concerns and "creating a safe workplace environment for women to discuss their health care needs may help address this.”
Menopause typically occurs when women are around 52 years old, and symptoms can impact “worker absenteeism, productivity, medical costs and lost chances for career advancement.”
“The takeaway for employers is that there is a critical need to address this issue for women in the workplace."
Read more via HR Dive, Mayo Clinic
According to a newly published Department of Labor report, “nearly half of workplace accommodations made for people with disabilities can be implemented at no cost to employers, and of those that do incur a one-time cost, the median expenditure has decreased when compared to previous reports to only $300.”
The report was published by the Job Accommodation Network (JAN), part of the Labor Department's Office of Disability Employment Policy.
Over half of employers said they “made accommodations to retain valued employees.”
68.4% of employers said the accommodations they made were “either very effective or extremely effective."
Making accommodations has direct and indirect benefits for employers, including “retaining valuable employees, improving productivity and morale, reducing workers’ compensation and training costs, and increasing workforce diversity.”
“This report reinforces what Job Accommodation Network has repeatedly in its work observed, which is that accommodations for disabled workers are indeed a low cost, high-impact strategy for supporting and retaining valued talent.”
Read more via Department of Labor
It's all over the news and social media: Ozempic and similar drugs are in demand since they "have been found to effectively help people lose excess weight.” They also “aren't cheap,” and experts warn they could risk driving employers' and workers' insurance premiums up. Experts say the class of drugs "went from being kind of non-existent in a top drug list to now in the top 25," and “now represent a fairly significant amount of total drug spend.” While the drugs “could be transformative for many Americans' health,” the costs associated with them are significant. Employers are facing “growing interest from workers in more comprehensive obesity care benefits,” according to experts. One recent survey found that 51% of obese workers said they “would stay at a job they didn't like to retain coverage for obesity treatment,” while 44% said they would “change jobs to gain coverage for obesity treatment.”
Read more via Axios
According to a new survey from the Employee Benefit Research Institute and research firm Greenwald Research, workers' and retirees' confidence in their retirement savings “fell starkly in 2023 — a level of decline not seen since 2008 during the Great Recession.”
Only 64% of workers surveyed earlier this year “believed they would be able to live comfortably in retirement.” That's down from 73% in 2022.
For retirees, 73% said they believed they would be able to live comfortably in retirement this year, down from 77% in 2022.
Concerns voiced by workers and retirees include “having little or no savings, inflation, and debt.”
“The confidence both workers and retirees have in their ability to finance their retirements dropped significantly in 2023 … This shows that the current economic climate, in particular inflation, is eroding the confidence that Americans had in their retirement preparations going into the pandemic."
Read more via 33rd annual Retirement Confidence Survey
GLOBAL ROUNDUP
China: In China, a new and growing phenomenon is prompting young people to trade “high-pressure, prestigious white-collar jobs for manual labor.” Young workers say they prefer the “physical exhaustion” of manual labor to the “mental toll” associated with their prior jobs, many of which are in high pressure office environments. (New York Times)
Italy: According to research from Randstad Italy, work-life balance is key for Italian jobseekers. Randstad found that “in 2023 work-life balance became the first factor in choosing the company to work for, with 60.5% of jobseekers stating this.” The second most important factor workers cited was “a pleasant working atmosphere" (57.5%), followed by salary and benefits (54.5%). (SIA)
Singapore: Singapore companies are “partially paying housing costs of employees and even relocating staff to cheaper neighboring cities,” as rents in Singapore increased last year at the fastest rate in 15 years. A potential exodus of foreign talent due to unaffordable housing costs “would be a setback to Singapore in fulfilling its ambitions of becoming a technological and innovations hub.” (Reuters)
United Kingdom: According to a new study, 50% of UK gig workers earn less than minimum wage. And a quarter of gig workers say the nature of their work puts their safety at risk. The study by the University of Bristol found that the median respondent earned just “£8.97 an hour – 53p less than the minimum wage, which was £9.50 at the time of the research.” (Guardian)
