November 3, 2026
Job satisfaction falls to record low as fewer workers want full-time employment
Job satisfaction in Britain has fallen to its lowest recorded level, while less than half of working-age adults now say they would ideally like to work full-time, according to new research suggesting a growing disconnect between what employees want from their jobs and what employers provide. Analysis of the latest British Social Attitudes Survey, carried out by the Resolution Foundation, reveals that the proportion of workers satisfied with their main job has fallen from 81 percent in 2015 to 74 percent in 2025. This is the lowest level recorded by the long-running survey, which has been tracking attitudes towards work for more than four decades. The findings are published in Work in Progress: A Decade of Change in the World of Work, part of the latest British Social Attitudes research conducted by the National Centre for Social Research.
The findings also point to a decline in employees’ commitment to their organisations. Just 55 percent of workers now say they are willing to work harder than required to help their employer succeed, compared with 69 percent a decade earlier. The research suggests that this growing disengagement is not necessarily a reflection of declining enthusiasm for work itself, but rather a widening gap between employees’ expectations and the reality of their working lives.
Workers increasingly value financial security, autonomy and flexibility, yet many believe their existing jobs fail to deliver these benefits. The proportion identifying a high income as an important characteristic of a job has risen from 67 percent to 78 percent over the past decade, although just 23 percent believe their current role provides one. Similarly, 61 percent now consider the ability to determine their own working hours important, compared with 46 percent in 2015. However, only 31 percent say their job actually offers that degree of control.
There has also been a deterioration in perceptions of job quality and career development. The proportion describing their work as interesting has fallen from 74 percent to 63 percent, while those reporting opportunities for advancement have declined from 35 percent to 26 percent.
Perhaps the most striking change concerns attitudes towards full-time employment. In 2015, 57 percent of working-age adults said they would ideally prefer to work full-time. By 2025, that figure had fallen to 47 percent. The decline has been driven entirely by men, among whom the proportion wanting full-time employment has dropped from 77 percent to 62 percent. The equivalent figure for women has remained relatively stable at 38 percent.
Despite this shift in preferences, the proportion of working-age adults actually working full-time has increased from 57 percent to 60 percent over the same period, suggesting a growing mismatch between preferred and actual working arrangements. The findings challenge claims that younger generations have become less interested in employment. Only 4 percent of working-age adults say they would ideally prefer not to work at all, while the figure falls to just 2 percent among people under 30 who are not full-time students.
Nor is there evidence of a substantial increase in workers’ intentions to change employers. Although actual job mobility has declined, 34 percent say they are likely to look for a new job within the next 12 months, a proportion that has changed little since 2015.
Hannah Slaughter, principal economist at the Resolution Foundation and author of the analysis, said: “Britain’s labour market has changed significantly over the past decade, and so too have people’s expectations of work. Our analysis suggests that workers increasingly want jobs that provide flexibility, independence and financial security. But many feel those expectations are not being met.” She also warned that the resulting decline in satisfaction and commitment could have wider economic consequences, particularly for productivity and labour supply.
The research also examines attitudes towards technology and artificial intelligence. While 60 percent of working-age adults are concerned that digital technologies will replace jobs currently performed by people, only 22 percent of workers believe their own job is at risk. The apparent contradiction suggests that concerns about technological change are not necessarily translating into a sense of personal insecurity, even as employers accelerate the adoption of AI and other digital systems.
Sir John Curtice, co-editor of the British Social Attitudes report, said the findings undermined some of the assumptions surrounding Britain’s labour market difficulties, particularly the suggestion that younger people have become less willing to work. He argued that employers increasingly need to offer financially rewarding jobs with flexible working hours if they want employees to remain engaged.
The analysis raises questions for employers about the relationship between job design, employee engagement and organisational performance. While flexible and hybrid working have become established features of many professional occupations since the pandemic, the findings suggest that employees’ desire for control over their working lives extends beyond where they work to when and how they work.
The research also suggests that efforts to improve productivity cannot be separated from the quality of employment. With fewer workers finding their jobs interesting, fewer seeing opportunities for progression and a declining proportion prepared to make additional efforts on behalf of their employers, organisations may face increasing difficulties securing the discretionary effort on which performance often depends.
