According to a recent survey made by MidAmerica Nazarene University with 2,000 Americans, only 25% of Americans currently work in their dream jobs. These 25% of Americans have either high salaries, born during the baby boomer generation, have PhD degrees or live in the Southwest area. However, what about the rest of the Americans? What do they want from their jobs?
Almost half of the Americans want to own businesses. 41% of survey respondents said that they want to have their own businesses but they are not willing to work more than 60 hours in their businesses. Out of these survey participants, 12% of them said they want C-suite titles, 23% said they want a mid-level management role, and 18% said they dream of having an associate position within a company. Also, they prefer to work in California but drive less than 2 miles to work and work only between 9am and 5pm with no overtime commitments in a small company with less than 30 employees. Well although these are ideal conditions, they are very difficult to become reality especially thinking about the conditions in California. They also add that they can travel twice a month and want to work in the entertainment industry.
Americans would like to have 1-hour lunch breaks, want to have professional relationships with their coworkers, 52 vacation days a year and want to work 38 hours per week. Currently, most Americans work more than 45 hours a week and have 15 days of vacation. They also want to have the option of working remotely at least 11 days a month. Most of them currently get less than 6 days to work remotely. For the salary, men say they want a yearly gross salary of $444,958 compared to women who want a salary of $278,637, which is a vast difference of $166,321. Company perks are also important for Americans. Their dream jobs offer 401(k) matching, help with student loans, a gym membership, office snacks, and the ability to work remotely. The most important perks to women are similar but they also include having a flexible schedule and unlimited vacation time.
Finally, most Americans are not working in their dream industries. Those who are working in administration, finance, hospitality and food, industrial, infrastructure, insurance, marketing and advertising, professional services, real estate, retail, and those who are unemployed dream of working in the entertainment industry. Nonetheless, some of the respondents are very happy to work in their industries but not satisfied with their current jobs. These are working in the accounting, broadcast and journalism, construction, education, engineering, entertainment, government, healthcare, HR, IT, legal, non-profit and social work, science, and skilled labor and trade industries. You can access the full survey results via this link.
