Dive Brief:

• Buoyed by a rapidly tightening labor market, job satisfaction among American workers rose slightly for the fourth consecutive year in 2014, and now stands at the highest level since 2008, according to a report by The Conference Board. 
• Nevertheless, satisfaction remains stubbornly low in historical terms, with the majority still not satisfied at work. Based on a Fall 2014 survey of 5,000 U.S. households conducted for The Conference Board by The Nielsen Company, Job Satisfaction: 2015 Edition found 48.3% of Americans satisfied with their jobs, up from 47.7% in 2013 and 42.6% in 2010 (an all-time low). 
• In fact, absent workers’ sense of growing job availability, overall satisfaction would have actually fallen slightly since 2012. 

Dive Insight:

As unemployment plummeted over recent years—from 9.1 percent in April 2011 to 5.1 percent in August 2015—job satisfaction has risen in kind, reflecting heightened competition for talent and the perception of expanded opportunities for turnover and advancement, says the report.

But the long-term picture is different: While job satisfaction topped 60% in the late 1980s and stood at 58.6% in 1995, a majority of Americans hasn’t been satisfied at work since 2005.

“The past year has seen a definitive shift to a ‘seller’s market’ in talent as the effects of an aging, slow-growing labor force begin to take hold,” said Rebecca Ray, executive vice president, knowledge organization and human capital, at The Conference Board. “For workers, this has meant higher satisfaction in the form of increased job security and improved career-development prospects."

But, she added, recovery from the Great Recession remains incomplete for many groups across the demographic spectrum.