I really love my job

THU, AUG 29, 2019

YOUR AFTERNOON NEWS UPDATE AND MARKET ACTION FROM CNBC

AS OF THU, AUG 29, 2019 • 12:04 ET

DJIA		26363.50
		+1.26%	+327.40

S&P 500		2924.36
		+1.26%	+36.42

NASDAQ		7972.45
		+1.47%	+115.57

EDITOR'S NOTE

And it turns out I'm not the only one.

Americans are more satisfied with their jobs than we have been in over twenty years, according to a new survey from The Conference Board.

More than half of us--54%--are "satisfied" with our employment as of 2018. The reading jumped three points last year, which is one of the biggest jumps in the survey's 32-year history.

And, it's us millennials making some major strides. We're no longer stuck in the basement living off of mom and dad. Satisfaction with our wages jumped nearly ten points last year. In fact, as the WSJ points out, workers under 35 are happier with their paychecks than people over 55 for the first time in at least eight years.

The data backs that up: while median weekly earnings jumped 5% overall in the fourth quarter of last year from a year earlier, for workers 25 to 34 that increase was a whopping 7.6% (!), according to the Journal.

(Ironically, job satisfaction overall for workers under 35 dipped slightly to 54% last year, "largely because of marked declines in feelings about their commutes and their supervisors." Satisfaction for workers over 55 was also 54%.)

Now, workers overall are still less satisfied with our work today than when the survey began in 1987. Back then, job satisfaction was over 60%. Still, we're "off the lows" of 2010 when, post-recession, less than 43% of Americans were satisfied with their jobs.

And satisfaction varies widely by region: hip, fast-growing Colorado and Minnesota, where my own siblings live, have 60% rates (these are 2014-2018 averages now). My dwelling place, New Jersey, is under 48%. Massachusetts is worst in the nation, at just 41%. Chart below.

All in all, this survey confirms the strength of the U.S. labor market and suggests that the deceleration in job growth this year could be as much from worker shortages, as Scott Minerd has argued, as from any slowing in the economy.

"According to our own research, job candidates are feeling so secure in their ability to find a new job that many of them are not showing up to scheduled job interviews," The Conference Board said in its release.

And the tight labor market is driving up job satisfaction for everyone: by forcing employers to hire and pay more for less-educated workers, and by forcing them to offer perks like telecommuting that help with people's work-life balance.

As the old saying goes, growth cures all ills. And as the GDP data this morning showed, the U.S. economy still grew 2.6% in the first half of this year. It's a bull market for workers, baby!

See you at 1 p.m.,

Kelly

Kelly Evans
@KellyCNBC

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