Want career satisfaction and overall happiness in your life? Pick the right occupation

Career Happiness/Satisfaction Interesting Fact of the Day:

When you hire a roofer, odds are 6-1 that the person who shows up to do the work is not a very happy person, but when you call a priest or the fire department odds are that you will get a very happy person.

And how we know so much about career happiness and satisfaction?

Thanks to a new study, we know a lot about what occupations have generally high levels of happiness and satisfaction (such as clergy and fire fighters) and which have low levels (e.g., roofers). The study is the work of the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

Why does this matter?

There are plenty of sources of information on the types of salaries you can expect depending on the career you pick. Starting salaries are fairly easy to discern as are the salary levels all of the way up the corporate ladder. But money does not buy happiness or satisfaction, so it would be an enormous mistake to make it the dominant (or worse the sole) factor in making a career decision. Ideally people would look have data on the relative happiness and satisfaction levels of different professions. From the report:

Most American adults are employed and their job is not only their main source of income, but also an important life domain in other ways. Work occupies a large art of each worker’s day, is one’s main source of social standing, helps to define who a person is, and affects one’s health both physically and mentally. Because of work’s central role in many people’s lives, satisfaction with one’s job is an important component in overall well-being.

Who are the happiest workers?

The study showed that happiness and satisfaction were not evenly distributed against occupations with some occupations ranking significantly higher in happiness and satisfaction than others. In other words, while some individuals could be happy in just about any occupations and others would be unhappy regardless of their occupation, some jobs have far more happy/satisfied people than others.

The top three jobs for satisfaction were clergy (87 percent reporting being very satisfied), firefighters (80 percent) and physical therapists (78 percent). Other top jobs, in which more than 60 percent of the respondents said they were very satisfied were education administrators, painters and sculpters, teachers, authors, psychologists, special education teachers, operating engineers, office supervisors and security and financial services salespersons.

The least satisfying jobs were held by roofers, with only 25 percent of them saying they found their job satisfying. The other low satisfaction jobs were held by waiters and servers, laborers (except construction trades), bartenders, handpackers and packagers, freight, stock and material handlers, apparel clothing salespersons, cashiers, food preparers (excluding cooks and chefs), expeditors (customer service representatives), butchers and meat cutters, and furniture and home furnishing salespersons.

From the report:

Top Occupations in Job Satisfaction

1 Clergy 87.2%
2 Physical Therapists 78.1%
3 Firefighters 80.1%
4 Education Administrators 68.4%
5 Painter, Sculptors, Related 67.3%
6 Teachers 69.2%
7 Authors 74.2%
8 Psychologists 66.9%
9 Special Education Teachers 70.1%
10 Operating Engineers 64.1%
11 Office Supervisors 60.8%
12 Security & Financial Services Salespersons 65.4%

Bottom Occupations in Job Satisfaction

1 Roofers 25.3%
2 Waiters/Servers 27.0%
3 Laborers, Except Construction 21.4%
4 Bartenders 26.4%
5 Hand Packers and Packagers 23.7%
6 Freight, Stock, & Material Handlers 25.8%
7 Apparel Clothing Salespersons 23.9%
8 Cashiers 25.0%
9 Food Preparers, Misc. 23.6%
10 Expediters 37.0%
11 Butchers & Meat Cutters 31.8%
12 Furniture/Home Furnishing Salespersons 25.2%

In short, if you want to improve your chances for lasting happiness and career satisfaction, then pick the right career in the first place. Please note that not all people have the same skills, interests or opportunities so the above numbers are just guidelines. But just because it is aggregate data doesn't mean it should be ignored. While it's just one piece of the puzzle, it's a key piece.

Link to press release of the study.

If you are contemplating a career change, we suggest this collection articles LifeTwo's Midlife Career Change FAQ covering all aspects of changing careers in middle age.