I did a double-take when I saw this job satisfaction chart this past week. Employees surveyed by The Conference Board were LESS satisfied with EVERY aspect of work except … “Overall Satisfaction”.
Quite curious, isn’t it?
The data is from a recent survey by The Conference Board which pinned overall job satisfaction at 63%. Up 40 basis points from last year’s study.
If you look at the bottom 5 dimensions in the chart, you see the impact that inflation is having. Money (wages, bonuses), promotability (promotions, reviews), and health care (cost) are all very serious issues. I think they reflect a workforce whose pay has not kept up with price increases over the last few years.
Are you surprised by anything you see on the chart?
Image: Chartr
MrFireStation 
I am not surprised at all. During inflationary times, only those who can react to inflation by increasing prices quickly because they have pricing power and those who invest in such companies are winners. It appears one of the ways that companies are cranking up their profits is by short sheeting their workers on pay raises. Real estate investors in residential housing and apartments are a winner if they can crank up their rents quickly.
Many companies are getting away with short sheeting their workers because of excess legal and illegal immigration which causes the double whammy of excess competition lowering wages and increasing housing cost at the same time. Lower wages and higher housing cost is a recipe for dissatisfaction.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/05/24/bidens-labor-market-foreigners-taking-u-s-jobs-hits-highest-level-as-employment-of-americans-declines/
Another metric that isn’t being measured that needs to be added to the chart is Tribalism that is being driven by immigrants from certain countries dominating a workplace and only hiring and advancing people who look like themselves. These companies might look good from a DEI standpoint, but may also be discriminating against US born Citizens.
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Real wages were finally seeming to catch up. They aren’t (much) higher than they were pre-lockdowns, but at least they were catching up. As you note, I’m sure immigration plays a role, too. Also important are high interest rates – those are a form of ‘future inflation’ built into things you finance.
Real wages … https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q
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I have attached another chart going back to 1965.
https://www.aei.org/articles/have-wages-stagnated-for-decades-in-the-us/
Inflation adjusted wages between 2016 and 2020 just reached the previous high water mark that was hit in 1973. There have been games played with the way inflation is measured, so inflation adjusted dollar today probably do go as far as it did back in the 1970s. The Soviets had a saying about this, “The Government pretends to pay us and the workers pretend to work.”
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