The Emotional Cost of Underemployment

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

The World's Voice in Numbers

March 19, 2024

Welcome to Front Page, where we break down Gallup's latest insights on our constantly evolving world. Here are the five insights you shouldn't miss this week:

World Happiness Report 2024 report cover

Be on the lookout for tomorrow's special feature edition of Front Page on the new World Happiness Report, powered by Gallup.

1. The Emotional Cost of Underemployment

Bar Chart: 31% of women employed at desired capacity are thriving, compared with 25% of underemployed women.

The Data: Underemployed women and men are less likely than their counterparts who are employed at desired capacity to be considered thriving on Gallup's Life Evaluation Index. But the deficit is greater for women (six percentage points) than for men (three points).

The Bigger Picture: For this analysis, underemployment is defined as being unemployed or working part time for an employer but desiring full-time work. The gender gap in workers' wellbeing is based on Gallup data collected in 154 countries from 2017 to 2022. Working at desired capacity matters to one's wellbeing, especially for women.

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2. Wellbeing Balancing Act

Bar Chart: Globally, 80% of people report feeling harmony with others around them.

The Data: Globally, 80% of people report feeling in harmony with others, and 71% are content, outpacing the 61% who feel inner peace during difficult times and the 59% saying their life is in balance.

Why This Matters: These data from Gallup, collected in partnership with the Wellbeing for Planet Earth Foundation, measure the degree of perceived balance in life and harmony with others. These often-neglected dimensions of wellbeing, it turns out, are positively related to the United Nations' Human Development Index. They are part of the “harmonic principles of wellbeing” as the dynamics of balance and harmony that are central to myriad aspects of wellbeing, such as work-life balance, peace and calmness.

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3. Seeking Satisfaction

Line Chart: 47% of Americans report being very satisfied with their personal lives.

The Data: Just 47% of Americans report being “very satisfied” with their personal lives, a slight decrease from last year and alarmingly close to the all-time low.

Longer Trends: This marks only the third time in over 20 years that less than half of the population feels a high degree of satisfaction with their personal lives. The record low was 46% in post-recession 2011, with another dip to 47% during the 2008 financial crisis, highlighting a correlation between economic challenges and personal contentment.

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4. Mixed Emotions

Double Line Chart: 33% of people worldwide experienced negative emotions within the last day, and 70% experienced positive emotions.

The Data: The well-documented global rise in negative emotions such as stress, sadness, anger and worry stalled in 2022, keeping Gallup's Negative Experience Index unchanged at a record-high 33. After dropping in 2021 following years of stability, positive emotions rebounded slightly in 2022. The global Positive Experience Index score in 2022 — 70 — was up one point from the previous year.

Index Overview: The Positive Experience Index captures feelings of being well-rested, respected, joyful, curious and entertained, whereas negative emotions are gauged by experiences of physical pain, worry, sadness, stress and anger. The Positive and Negative Experience Indexes reflect people's daily experiences with 10 emotions, offering leaders insights into the health of their societies that they cannot gain from economic measures alone.

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5. Count on Me

Line Chart: 71% of people globally feel very or fairly supported by others.

The Data: Seventy-one percent of people globally feel “very” or “fairly” supported by others.

The Bigger Picture: Meta and Gallup found that more than seven in 10 people surveyed across 142 countries in 2022 said they felt very (35%) or fairly (36%) supported or cared for by people, which translates into an estimated 3.2 billion people worldwide. Still, 9% said they do not feel supported at all. This means that over 400 million people aren't reaping the benefits that feeling supported potentially offers, such as mitigating stress and pain.

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