As American workers continue to look for work, here during during the Mega JobNewsUSA South Florida Job Fair in September, a new report finds that 60% of those already employed don’t hold “quality” jobs. (Photo by Joe Raedle\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
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A new workplace report is saying the quiet part out loud\u2014most Americans do not hold quality jobs. Only 40% of U.S. workers hold roles that provide financial well-being, a voice in workplace decisions and opportunities for growth at safe and respectful workplaces where they hold some control over their work, according to the study led by Gallup<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cFor too long we\u2019ve been reliant on data that counts the number of jobs being created and earnings, but there are big question marks around the quality of jobs,\u201d says Maria Flynn, president and CEO of Jobs for the Future, which also worked on the study. \u201cEven when the economy was doing well, you\u2019d hear about workers being discouraged and disillusioned.\u201d<\/p>\n Quality was described by five different components: financial well-being; workplace culture and safety; growth and development opportunities; agency and voice; and work structure and autonomy. A role must meet the minimum threshold of at least three of the categories to be considered a quality job.<\/p>\n The study, a collaboration between Gallup, Jobs for the Future, The Families Worker Fund and the W.E. Upjohn Institute for employment research, surveyed 18,429 U.S. adults aged 18 to 75 who worked for pay in the prior seven days. It was conducted between January 13 and February 25 this year, and is the first survey of this size to put these measures of employee experience together.<\/p>\n While this is the first report at this scale, it\u2019s not the first time economists have warned about the state of the American workforce. Mid-year Gallup <\/a>polling showed that only 32% of employees are engaged at work, slightly up from a 10-year low in January. And the impact on business outcomes is real. Another Gallup study<\/a> found that companies with engaged workforces have higher earnings per share, not to mention higher employee retention and thus lower talent acquisition costs.<\/p>\n Such findings come at a time when the labor market has stalled. Only 22,000 jobs<\/a> were added in August, the last full month for which the government has released data, due to the shutdown, and quit rates that month fell to 1.9%<\/a>, the lowest since November 2024. \u201cJob hugging\u201d has become the cliche du dour among workplace experts as employees hold on to their jobs and employers reconsider hiring plans.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels like we\u2019re at a breaking point when you look at any of those statistics individually,\u201d says Pete Savros, co-head of global private equity at KKR, who previewed the data early.<\/p>\n Focusing on the quality of jobs may explain why both workers and employers feel such a breaking point, especially when it comes to low worker engagement and satisfaction scores. While the report does not account for differences between ideal work environments, which vary across industries, roles and individuals, the five dimensions can be applied to all kinds of jobs, from knowledge to frontline workers.<\/p>\n For each dimension, researchers compared specific quantitative measures as part of their quality evaluation. Financial well-being, for example, measures stable employment, workplace benefits and fair pay, defined as workers earning more than 300% of the federal poverty level for a family of two ($5,287.50 per month.)<\/p>\n