--- title: Job Satisfaction Is at an All-Time Low, and Young Workers Are Especially Stressed Out description: Young people are bearing the burden of record-low job satisfaction, according to a new report. authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and more than a dozen local and regional newspapers. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 497 covers: - Business - Banking - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ published: '2022-03-21T19:46:20.000Z' modified: '2024-01-10T17:20:06.000Z' section: Business tags: - burnout - employee benefits - Gen Z - job benefits - job perks - News - student loan assistance - young workers - zillennials word_count: 463 canonical: https://money.com/job-satisfaction-all-time-low/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Young, frustrated woman working at a bar deals with customers](https://img.money.com/2022/03/News-Job-Satisfaction-20-Year-Low.jpg) Job satisfaction is at the lowest level ever recorded by the financial services firm MetLife. On Monday, MetLife released its [annual employee benefits report](https://www.metlife.com/content/dam/metlifecom/us/noindex/pdf/ebts-2022/MetLife_EBTS_2022.pdf), noting that job satisfaction is at a 20-year low — with young workers feeling the brunt of the blow. The firm began releasing the survey in 2002, at a time when the country was reeling from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and gearing up for war with Iraq and Afghanistan. When it comes to mental and financial health, the new data suggests, employee morale is even worse in 2022. Two years into the pandemic, 23\- to 28\-year\-olds, referred to as “Zillennials” in the report, are experiencing the impacts of [isolation and burnout](https://money.com/mental-health-burnout-increase-job-reviews/) most acutely. Of this age group, more than half say their unfulfilling job is a top source of stress. Women, people of color and manual laborers were also among the least satisfied with their jobs, MetLife found. Of all workers, MetLife’s study shows 66% are satisfied with their jobs in 2022, down sharply from pre-pandemic 2019, when 74% of workers reported they were satisfied. “It’s clear we’ve reached a critical inflection point in the workplace,” Todd Katz, an executive vice president at MetLife, said in a statement. ## Employee demands amplified Against the backdrop of a historically tight labor market, some workers are winning major concessions. The struggle to attract and retain young workers is having an outsized impact on overall working conditions, sending employers into a scramble to offer [better pay](https://money.com/ask-for-a-raise-scipt-2022/), [retirement benefits](https://money.com/401k-benefits-improve-great-resignation/) and [student loan assistance](https://money.com/convince-employer-pay-student-loans/). “Concerns about job security, prevalent early in the pandemic, have been replaced by a sense of empowerment,” the MetLife report states. Still, the majority of young workers are struggling financially: 65% of Gen Z respondents (those born between 1997 and 2012) say their biggest financial concern this year is having enough money to buy housing, and only 48% say they feel “financially healthy” compared to 64% of all workers in MetLife’s survey. Separate data released by the American Psychological Association (APA) this month suggests the impacts of [inflation](https://money.com/inflation-worst-cities-gas-car-prices/) and the [ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia](https://money.com/russia-ukraine-sanctions-inflation/) are further fueling America's "stunning" stress levels. According to the APA, 87% of Americans now say inflation is a significant stressor. Likewise, more than 80% of young adults polled by the APA cite money as a major source of stress. “Americans have been doing their best to persevere over these past two tumultuous years,'' Arthur C. Evans Jr., the CEO of APA, said in a statement, “but these data suggest that we’re now reaching unprecedented levels of stress that will challenge our ability to cope.” [How to Save Money on Gas](https://money.com/how-to-save-money-on-gas/) [Best Money Moves for March 2022](https://money.com/best-money-moves/) [More Companies Are Wooing Workers by Paying off Their Student Loans](https://money.com/student-loan-repayment-assistance-bigger-employee-benefits/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/job-satisfaction-all-time-low/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Business", "item": "https://money.com/business/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Employee Benefits", "item": "https://money.com/employee-benefits/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Job Satisfaction Is at an All-Time Low, and Young Workers Are Especially Stressed Out" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/job-satisfaction-all-time-low/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/job-satisfaction-all-time-low/", "name": "Job Satisfaction Is at an All-Time Low, and Young Workers Are Especially Stressed Out", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2022-03-21T19:46:20.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/job-satisfaction-all-time-low/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/job-satisfaction-all-time-low/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-01-10T17:20:06.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "Job Satisfaction Is at an All-Time Low, and Young Workers Are Especially Stressed Out", "articleSection": "Business", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2022/03/News-Job-Satisfaction-20-Year-Low.jpg", "width": 2880, "height": 1920, "caption": "News-Job-Satisfaction-20-Year-Low" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Adam Hardy", "url": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/#author", "description": "Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. 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