Are you happy in your job?

By Warren Gamble

The holiday is all but over, the fishing rods are stacked away, the long card evenings are a fading memory, and thoughts are turning to a dreaded four-letter word. Work.

But wait. A New Zealand Herald-DigiPoll survey has shown the thought of trudging back to the office or factory might not be so terrible for many of us.

In fact, New Zealanders are positively positive about their jobs, according to the nationwide poll.

Of the 480 who had full or part-time jobs, 51.5 per cent put themselves in the "happy - a lot" category about their work, and 30.3 per cent considered themselves a little happy.

Only 10 per cent considered themselves unhappy and a mere 7.3 per cent classed themselves as "unhappy - a lot."

That means a huge 82 per cent are happy with their working lot compared with only 17 per cent dissatisfied.

Northlanders are the most happy about their jobs - perhaps because of the high unemployment rate in the region - with 62.5 per cent putting themselves in the "happy - a lot" category.

But Northlanders also had the highest unhappy percentage (12.4).

More than half of Aucklanders surveyed were in the happiest category (53.9).

The next highest in that cheerful group were workers living in the lower North Island (52.9) and those resident in Christchurch (52.6).

Wellington, base for the nation's lawmakers and most Government department head offices, had the least very happy workers (43.1), and the second highest unhappy employees (8.6).

National Party voters had the highest level of job satisfaction - 57.5 per cent of them declaring they were very happy, followed by Act New Zealand voters (56.5), Alliance (50), Labour (49.7) and New Zealand First (30.7).

Predictably, those with household incomes of more than $67,000 had the highest level of the happiest workers - 90 per cent were either happy a lot or a little.

Although possibly affected by what was a small sample, even those households earning under $19,000 were generally satisfied, with 78 per cent either very or a little happy.

There was little difference between men (84 per cent happy) and women (78 per cent).

Among ethnic groups New Zealand Europeans and Maori had happiness ratings of 81 and 82 per cent, but Pacific Islanders - from a small sample - recorded the highest dissatisfaction with 40 per cent opting for the "unhappy - a lot" category.

People aged 40 and over were happier at work (83 per cent for the two categories) than those aged 18 to 39 (81 per cent).