Life satisfaction of workers across employment sectors and occupational groups

As employment constitutes a significant domain of life, the employment sector and occupational category can exert substantial influence on workers’ wellbeing. If people know how their choices of sector and occupation may influence their life satisfaction, their career decisions can be informed accordingly. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the association between employment sector, occupational group and various dimensions of subjective wellbeing, namely subjective income level, satisfaction with the household’s financial situation, and life satisfaction, utilizing data from the 7th wave of the World Values Survey. By employing ordered logistic regression while controlling subjective income and social status, the study seeks to explicate patterns of wellbeing across diverse employment contexts. Empirical findings reveal heterogeneity in employee wellbeing across employment sectors and occupational groups. The results indicate that paid employment in the public and nonprofit sectors and self-employment increase the probability of experiencing higher levels of life satisfaction compared to employment in private sector. With managerial occupations serving as the reference group, the positive marginal effects observed for other occupational categories suggest that nonmanagerial occupations are associated with higher levels of financial and life satisfaction among workers, while controlling the effect of relative income.