Working in IT: Better than retail, but worse than travel

Angus Kidman
Friday, 08 December 2006 06:43

IT People - Enterprise

Almost 31% of IT workers are either indifferent to or unhappy with their current jobs, but code cutters and help desk jockeys are still far more content with their lot than retail workers, according to a new study.

A total of 69% of US IT workers described themselves as very happy or happy with their current job, according to the Kelly Services Global Workforce Index, which surveyed 4,000 American workers across a range of industries. Those figures were slightly higher than the overall average of 65%. 16% of IT workers said that were unhappy or very unhappy, while 15% were indifferent.

The top-ranked profession was travel, with 80% of workers seemingly content with their lot, despite a continuing decline in commissions driven by people booking their own travel online. Retail jobs scored the lowest, with only 37% of workers saying they were happy, while 36% found the entire prospect of going to work a drag. (Perhaps they all need to go and work for Amazon.com.)

With a total job satisfaction of 65%, US workers were somewhat happier than their UK counterparts, but lagged slightly behind Australia. However, Americans appear to like their bosses rather more, with only Mexico giving a higher overall score for management performance.