2013 Work Happiness Survey Report

2013 Work happiness survey report

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Survey: Singapore records five years of unhappiness among workers
2013 workers only marginally happier than 2009 recession year

(Singapore, 10 Oct 2013) – Work happiness seems elusive for many in Singapore. According to the JobsCentral 2013 Work Happiness Indicator survey done in the middle of this year, Singapore workers have shown consistently low levels of overall work happiness for half a decade.

In addition, today’s workers are only marginally happier than workers in 2009, a year that was difficult for many people because of the recession. In Singapore, the overall 2009 Work Happiness rating was 56.4. In 2013, this figure only inched up slightly to 57.9 points.

“The workplace environment in Singapore is a tough and demanding one. On one hand, employers face challenges such as business growth and profitability amidst a background of rising costs and human resources crunch. This often leads to higher productivity expectations of their employees. On the other hand, employees feel the pressure to make more money and move up the career ladder in order to meet their aspirations and financial commitments,” says Lim Der Shing, Chief Executive Officer of JobsCentral Group.

On the topic of constantly low happiness scores, Mr Lim adds, “Unfortunately, for work happiness levels to hover within the same unhealthy range for five years, it is clear that there is a mismatch between what employees want and what jobs are able to provide. This is a worrying trend, as a marginally happy workforce would have repercussions on work productivity, innovation and Singapore’s economic growth in the longer term.”

Over 3,500 Singapore workers took part in the JobsCentral online survey this year, which ran from 22nd May to 23rd June, with a margin error of 1.64 per cent, at confidence levels of 95% for a Singapore labour force population of over 3.3 million.

OTHER FINDINGS INCLUDE:

Workers approaching retirement age are unhappiest

Singapore workers are probably most miserable at work if they’re between 51 – 60 years old. Those in this age group scored the lowest with a score of 55.5 — a 12 per cent drop in work happiness since 2009. On the other hand, those aged 61 years and above are the happiest. This group scored 69.8, placing them in the ‘Moderately Happy’ category.

Money is king but Millennials also value ‘Advancement Opportunities’, while Generation X wants ‘Work-life Balance’

Singapore workers want money. Across all age groups, respondents agree that ‘Salary’ is the most important aspect of a job. However, Generation X also wants ‘Work-life balance’, and voted it as the second most important. In contrast, ‘Work-life balance’ only ranks 4th place among the Millennial Generation. The Millennials – those aged 29 years and below – ranked better ‘Advancement opportunities’ in 2nd place instead.

Salary and career advancement are most important but cause most dissatisfaction

While salary and career advancement are of top importance to Singapore workers, these two aspects are also, unfortunately, the ones they are most dissatisfied with. These may be the underlying reasons for the Singapore workers’ dismal scores. As the cost of living rises in Singapore, workers feel the pressure to make more money to maintain their aspirations and way of life.

$10,000 monthly salary is the ‘magic’ mark

Those earning $10,000 and above each month are really, really happy. They also have one of the highest increases in work happiness compared to 2009. In contrast, those who earn $5,000 – $5,999 monthly have the greatest decline in happiness levels.

Lawyers are unhappy at work

Even though lawyers tend to command a higher average salary than the average Singapore worker, employees in Legal job functions have shown the largest decline in happiness, with a 6 per cent decrease in overall work happiness in 2013 compared to 2009. They are also among the least happy groups of workers, alongside Supply Chain/Distribution and Merchandising workers.


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About JobsCentral Group
The JobsCentral Group, owned by CareerBuilder, consists of JobsCentral.com.sg, JobsCentral Career and Education Fair, JobsCentral Learning and BrightSparks. JobsCentral.com.sg is one of Singapore’s largest job portals with over 1 million registered jobseekers, 8 million page views and 300,000 job applications every month. The annual JobsCentral Career and Education Fair enjoys >55,000 visits and features a unique networking session popular with employers and jobseekers. JobsCentral Learning offers a one-stop location for research, enquiries and signups of education and training programs. And BrightSparks is Singapore’s largest and most popular scholarship and higher education platform for pretertiary students.

http://jobscentral.com.sg                                   http://jobscentral.com.sg/learning
http://jobscentral.com.sg/careerfair                 http://brightminds.jobscentral.com.sg
http://community.jobscentral.com.sg               http://brightsparks.com.sg

For more information, please contact:
JobsCentral Group 
Tel: +65 6778 5288

Kok Lin
Tel: +65 6578 7473
[email protected]