A National Centre for Social Research chapter found UK job satisfaction at 74% in 2025, while willingness to make extra effort for employers fell, offering a snapshot of workplace sentiment.
The share who described themselves as completely, very or fairly satisfied stood at 81% in 2015 and 82% in 2005. The British Social Attitudes survey has asked its Work Orientations questions in five rounds since 1989, and 2025 marked its lowest result. The chapter's author, Resolution Foundation principal economist Hannah Slaughter, also found fewer workers ready to go beyond their formal duties for their employer: 55% in 2025, down from 69% in 2015 and near the 58% recorded in 1997. Slaughter said the change could reflect weaker commitment or workers viewing their jobs as more intense.
In 2025, 78% said a high income was important in a job, compared with 67% in 2015. But 23% said their current job provided a high income, down from 25% a decade earlier; NatCen said that change was not statistically significant. The chapter attributed the larger difference between the importance of high income and its reported availability to more workers valuing it.
The share saying it was important to be able to decide their own working hours rose to 61% from 46% in 2015. In 2025, 31% said their current job let them control their work times or days; the survey asked about that feature of respondents' jobs for the first time that year. Other reported job attributes also declined: 63% said their work was interesting, compared with 74% in 2015, and 73% said they could work independently, down from 82%. The chapter linked these attributes with satisfaction but did not establish that changes in working conditions caused satisfaction to fall.
About 34% said they were likely to look for work with another employer in the next 12 months, compared with 32% in 2015. Meanwhile, job-to-job moves averaged 2.2% of workers per quarter in 2025, down from 2.4% in 2015. NatCen said the difference may indicate that some demand for job changes is going unmet.
Slaughter said workers increasingly wanted flexibility, independence and financial security, but “many feel those expectations are not being met.” The chapter discusses possible implications for productivity and labor supply; it did not measure those as outcomes of the survey findings.
The 2015-to-2025 comparison spans a change in survey collection. In 2020, NatCen shifted from face-to-face interviews to a push-to-web design with a telephone option.
