Bottom five jobs

Vicar or publican - which jobs make you happy?

Which would you be happier doing - serving pints or serving God? Helpful advice on how to make those difficult life choices is on hand.

The Cabinet Office has been looking at the relationship between different jobs and levels of life satisfaction, and publicans, it turns out, are in the unhappiest occupation of all. They are closely followed by brickies and debt collectors.

The happiest workers, the research suggests, are vicars and priests. Members of the clergy enjoy the most satisfying lives - but farmers and fitness instructors are pretty jolly too.

The government thinks people should have access to information on the relationship between the salary and the satisfaction associated with a career - part of the prime minister's commitment to find policies that boost the wellbeing of the nation.

What emerges is that, while there is a link between earnings and life-satisfaction, some quite well-paid jobs are populated by those with low levels of wellbeing - and vice versa. For example, despite an average salary of almost £39,000 a year, quantity surveyors work in the 41st most miserable occupation out of 274 different categories.

The life of a publican can be complicated

The average farmer earns £24,500, but they are a particularly chipper lot with the eighth highest life satisfaction of any job. In fact, the outdoor life does seem to be associated with greater personal wellbeing - managers in agriculture and horticulture are the third happiest and farm workers are in the top 25 too.

The people whose jobs are associated with the lowest life satisfaction include telesales workers, bar staff, rent collectors and leisure assistants.

Top five jobs

Clergy

Chief executive/senior official

Agriculture/horticulture proprietor

Company secretary

Quality assurance

Bottom five jobs

Publican

Elementary construction

Debt/rent collector

Industrial cleaner

Floorers/wall tillers

[See full table at bottom of page]

The Cabinet Office is working on a web-based calculator that will allow those torn between two career paths to compare the average salaries and life-satisfaction associated with each.

Someone, for instance, considering working as a company secretary (average salary £18,200) or taking a bit more money to be an ambulance driver (£22,800) would learn that the people doing the former job report significantly higher levels of life satisfaction than those in the latter.

None of this means you can't be a joyful publican or a miserable vicar, of course. Nor does it mean that those jobs make people happy or sad. The data only offers evidence on the average life satisfaction of those doing different jobs. It might be that naturally gloomy people run pubs and unusually cheery types become quality regulators, for example.

But it does provide a clue to choosing the career path that is likely to be most fulfilling.

The official tables might be seen as one of the first tangible demonstrations of how government is trying to use policy to boost the happiness of the nation.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-24