Study: Careers helping others are among the happiest

Want to up your happiness and satisfaction with your career, and
life in general? How about a career focused on helping people?
According to a new study
out of the National Opinion Research Center at the University of
Chicago, “workers who spend their days improving the lives of others
are among the most satisfied in the country.”

The new
report links people’s jobs to how satisfied they are in their careers
as well as to their general happiness. “Work…is one’s main source of
social standing, helps to define who a person is, and affects one’s
health both physically and mentally,” wrote Tom W. Smith, director of
the General Social Survey (GSS) at the University-affiliated National
Opinion Research Center, in the report.

“We found that occupations that involved a high degree of prestige,
particularly those involving caring for others…were the highest in job
satisfaction,” Smith said in a telephone interview. Clergy ranked the
highest, with 87.2 percent saying they were “very satisfied” in their
careers. Firefighters (80.1 percent) and physical therapists (78.1
percent) were close runners-up. Rounding out the top 10 were education
administrators, painters and sculptors, teachers, authors,
psychologists, special education instructors, and operating engineers.

The results are drawn from over 27,000 face to face interviews with people across the US done between 1988 to 2006.

–

Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst (sm)

Time for a career change? Launch it with…
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Originally
from The Occupational Adventure (sm)

by Curt Rosengren

on May 1, 2007, 10:59PM

Posted by Jeff Bosco with no comments.
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