Where Job Satisfaction is Highest and Lowest

According to the Randstad Workmonitor, Indians are the most satisfied at work while Japanese are the least satisfied out of 15 countries surveyed. Only 48 percent of Japanese said they were satisfied with their work. To add insult to injury, 21 percent of Japanese had said during the previous survey that they were dissatisfied with their work - meaning the country had both the lowest and the highest outcome in the Randstad survey, respectively.

While the lack of satisfaction at work can have many reasons - and much has been said about the cutthroat nature of Japanese working culture - a bad work environment also contributes to unhappiness and Japan has aimed to protect workers from abuse and bullying with a law passed in 2020. An extensive mention of physical abuse in the law's text shines a light on the grave problems of workplace harassment that have persisted in the country.

Higher satisfaction levels were recorded in India and Latin America. North American satisfaction levels also ranked above the world average. In Southern and Eastern Europe as well as in the APAC region, satisfaction levels were somewhat lower than in the world as a whole.

The unhappiness of Japanese employees has almost become a hallmark of international workplace surveys - from the now defunct Edenred-Ipsos Barometer to more recent surveys by Universum. According to Randstad, Japanese were also the least likely to expect a pay rise or a bonus.