UK Job Satisfaction Falls to Record Low, Study Finds

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Fewer British workers are happy in their jobs than at any time on record. A new study from the Resolution Foundation thinktank ties the slide to pay, a lack of flexibility, insecure work and a loss of independence.

Pay and flexibility, in an economist's words

Hannah Slaughter, an economist at the foundation and co-author of the report, said more workers now report low pay, and the worry runs across all pay levels. She linked this to years of small pay rises and the rising cost of living. The demand for flexibility is just as strong.

"Workers increasingly want jobs that provide flexibility, independence and financial security," Slaughter said. In her view, many feel those expectations are not being met.

She also pointed to a reduced appetite for full-time work. She called the "dissatisfaction drain" bad for workers and a poor sign for productivity and labour supply.

What the pollster reads in it

John Curtice, the Strathclyde professor who co-edits the British Social Attitudes report, said young people have not become more work-shy and workers have not become more reluctant to change jobs. For staff to be fully engaged, he said, it has seemingly become more important for employers to offer jobs that pay well and have flexible hours.

The foundation says policymakers could use the analysis to turn around years of sluggish productivity growth and low job mobility, and to tackle high inactivity, above all among young people.

The numbers behind the slide

The study draws on the 2025 British Social Attitudes survey. Job satisfaction fell from 81% in 2015 to 74%, the lowest figure since the question was first asked in 1989.

Fewer people now say their job is interesting: 63%, down from 74% over the decade. Fewer also say it offers a chance to advance. By 2025, 55% said they would go the extra mile for their employer, down from 69% in 2015.

One figure did not move. Only 4% of workers say work has little intrinsic value, and that has stayed flat. The thinktank's reading is that people have not lost the sense that work matters. What has fallen is how positive they feel about the jobs they do.

Separate Ipsos polling going back to the 1980s supports the study. In 1976, 83% of workers said they were very or fairly satisfied with their work. In 2026 the figure is 69%.

Our view

The data describe attitudes, not behaviour, so they do not show by themselves that output has fallen. Curtice's remark points to pay and flexible hours together as what keeps staff engaged. The survey does not say how employers have responded so far.

Source: the Guardian