If you’re the type of person who finds fulfillment and meaning from your job and can’t shut up about it at the bar, congrats, but it seems you’re among a dwindling minority. At least that’s the sense from a recent massive Pew survey which found a 7% decline in U.S. adults who said they derive meaning and purpose in life from their jobs. That’s down from 24% who said their occupation or career gave their life meaning in Pew’s previous 2017 survey.
In the report, the researchers speculate that the declines in mentions of occupation or career as a source of meaning may be related to the workplace turmoil so many faced during the pandemic. Adults with high incomes and high levels of education are still more likely to cite their jobs as a source of meaning compared to others, but both of those groups saw declines over the past four years. Jobs weren’t the only losers in the meaning department either. Mentions of physical and mental health as sources of meaning declined from 19-11%, while mentions of spouses and romantic partners nosedived from 20-9%.
It’s not all bad news though. The share of adults who cited “society” as a source of meaning nearly doubled from 8%-14%. A small, but certainly kind-hearted cohort citing nature and the outdoors as a source of meaning ticked up from 2-4%. And because it’s America, 9% of adults cited “freedom and independence” as their source of meaning, up from 5%. That increase was, predictably, mostly driven by Republicans, who usually aren’t ones to shy away from opportunities to display their god honest love of freedom.
Interestingly, U.S. adults were also far more likely to mention religion as a source of meaning in their life when compared to 14 other countries with “advanced economies,” the researchers note in an accompanying post. Across countries, people with higher incomes and education were also more likely to list family and careers as factors that gave their lives meaning.
By now, it’s relatively well established that performing a job that instills workers with a sense of meaning or fulfillment is better than the alternative. Various research papers in recent years (and general common sense) have shown workers who aren’t anxiously counting down the minutes until their annoying, unbearable job finally ends tend to have improved mental health outcomes.
