Are you satisfied with your job? A growing number of U.S. workers aren’t

A record number of U.S. workers expect to be unemployed in the next four months, only 88% of those who had jobs four months ago are still with the same employer, and more than 1 in 4 employed people are actively looking for a new gig, according to a Monday report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
And it’s not just current prospects that are bumming out the workforce — a growing number of those with jobs believe they’ll be working past 62 and over a third expect they’ll still be clocking in past the age of 67.
The New York Fed’s thrice-yearly SCE Labor Market Survey finds the proportion of individuals who reported searching for a job in the past four weeks increased to 28.4% — the highest level since March 2014 — from 19.4% in July 2023. The biggest increases were found among respondents older than age 45, those without a college degree, and those with an annual household income less than $60,000.
Compared to a year ago, workers’ collective satisfaction about their earnings, benefits and promotion opportunities have all deteriorated.
Satisfaction with wage compensation at respondents’ current job fell to 56.7% from 59.9% in July 2023; satisfaction with non-wage benefits fell to 56.3% from 64.9%; and satisfaction with promotion opportunities dropped to 44.2% from 53.5%, according to the report.
A growing number of workers, 11.6%, report an upcoming job change is likely, up from 10.6% in July 2023 and 4.4% expect to become unemployed in the next four months, a rise from 3.9% over the past 12 months. The readings are the highest since the report series started in 2014.
On average, 48.3% of those currently employed said they expect to be working past the age of 62 and 34.2% believe they’ll still be grinding beyond 67 years old. Both readings are up over the past year.
The new data comes just weeks after the U.S. Labor Department reported unemployment swelled to 4.3% in July, the highest level in three years, and U.S. job growth showed significant slowing.
U.S. businesses added 114,000 new, non-farm payroll jobs in July according to a report earlier this month from the U.S. Department of Labor, falling far short of the 175,000 expected by many economists and trailing well behind the 217,000 new jobs per month average over the past year. The annual unemployment rate hit its highest level since October 2021 in July, inching up from June’s 4.1%. The Labor Department’s July Employment Situation Summary found the number of unemployed people increased by 352,000 to 7.2 million last month. The new data reflects a significant rise in U.S. unemployment from 12 months ago when the jobless rate was 3.5% and the number of unemployed people numbered 5.9 million.
At the state level, Utah’s unemployment rate has also been on the rise, though it’s tracking at a much lower rate than the national average. The latest data from the Utah Department of Workforce Services found Utah’s unemployment rate came in at 3.2% in June, up from June’s 3.0% rate.
The new data will add to a growing list of compelling information ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s September policy meeting at which most economists believe the monetary body will make its first downward adjustment to its federal funds rate in over four years.
The Fed’s two-part policy mandate of supporting price stability and maximum employment has been skewed heavily toward the inflation metric for the last few years, but the recent, unexpectedly bleak jobs numbers have pulled more focus toward the employment realm.
While in no way guaranteeing a rate reduction will come at its September meeting, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell last month offered some foreshadowing of its likelihood, pending any unforeseen economic wobbles.
“We have made no decision about future meetings,” Powell said. “The broad sense of the committee is that the economy is moving closer to the point at which it will be appropriate to reduce our policy rate.”
While a series of steady U.S. inflation downticks over the second half of 2023 had spurred the Fed to signal late last year it could assess multiple federal lending rate cuts in 2024, inflation headed back up early this year and forced the monetary body to recompute. Now, it appears likely just a single rate cut will occur before the end of the year.