S'porean workers found to be 'most happy' since 2009

Channel NewsAsia, 8 Nov 2012

Singapore's Overall Work Happiness Score has reached its highest since the inception of the survey in 2009.

According to the JobsCentral Work Happiness Indicator Survey, the Overall Work Happiness Score for Singaporean workers this year reached 59.8, compared to the 56.4 logged in 2009.

Out of the 3,299 respondents in the online survey from September to October this year, 22.5 per cent ranked salary as the most important job attribute. 

Work-Life balance and advancement opportunities tied in second position. 

"The labour market in Singapore has remained tight and worker mobility is still high. This means that people have choices when it comes to jobs and if they are unhappy with their current ones, they would simply get new jobs," said JobsCentral Group chief executive Lim Der Shing.

"We have also seen wage pressures across all sectors and workers are getting higher salary, which is always an important factor for work happiness," he added.

Mr Lim also acknowledged that work-life balance' is a major concern of workers in Singapore, saying that "employers should have in place work-life balance friendly policies that prevent excessive or unnecessary over-time".

He also added that employers should respect employees' personal time and space and that "a happy workforce ultimately adds to the bottom line as happy workers are more productive and stay longer at their jobs".

The survey also found that editorial practitioners have the lowest Work Happiness score of 54.2, making them the least satisfied of all workers by job function. 

When sorted by salary, workers who earned between S$9,000 and S$9,999 per month were the most unhappy, while the happiest workers were those who earned between S$8,000 and S$8,999 per month. 

Singapore respondents were also found to be most dissatisfied with advancement opportunities at their jobs.