Sharply varying levels of job satisfaction in occupations in the UK are documented and explained primarily by reference to individual level data for a large sample of current employees collected in 1999-2000. An accompanying critique of the approach to job satisfaction in some applied and organizational psychology makes two points. First, the terms job and work need to be more carefully distinguished when examining satisfaction data, giving more attention to the terms of the employment contract, skill data, and the mobility implications of jobs, and relatively less weight to employee involvement, empowerment and self-actualization. Second, job satisfaction data supply evidence of the competent rational evaluation of utility on the part of employees, though individual affectivity undoubtedly conditions such assessments. The findings support a re-balancing in explanation between extrinsic and intrinsic sources of job satisfaction, while showing that work-related stress and excessive hours may in practice comprise a more urgent practical problem for management than socio-technical aspects of work-life quality.
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