Firefighters showed an overwhelmingly positive level of job satisfaction in a recent survey conducted by the University of Chicago. The response is part of an overall trend that shows that happiest workers are those in service to others.

Firefighting ranked second in the overall occupations for satisfaction, with 80% of firefighters responding that they were "very satisfied." Rounding out the top three were were clergy (87%) and physical therapists (78%).

“The most satisfying jobs are mostly professions, especially those involving caring for, teaching, and protecting others and creative pursuits,” said Tom W. Smith, director of the General Social Survey at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

In the survey, interviewers asked people how satisfied they were with their jobs. The interviewers also asked them about their general level of happiness and Smith correlated those general happiness findings with the jobs people held. People’s feelings about their work usually have a significant impact on their happiness, he said.

Across all occupations, on average, 47% of people said they were very satisfied with their jobs and 33% said they were very happy. Other top jobs, in which more than 60% of the respondents said they were very satisfied were education administrators, painters and sculpters, teachers, authors, psychologists, special education teachers, operating engineers, office supervisors, and security and financial services salespersons.

Smith said that the least satisfying dozen jobs are mostly low-skill, manual and service occupations, especially involving customer service and food/beverage preparation and serving.

The least satisfying jobs were held by roofers, with only 25% of them saying they found their job satisfying. The other low satisfaction jobs were held by waiters and servers, laborers (except construction trades), bartenders, handpackers and packagers, freight, stock and material handlers, apparel clothing salespersons, cashiers, food preparers (excluding cooks and chefs), expeditors (customer service representatives), butchers and meat cutters, and furniture and home furnishing salespersons.

Firefighters also were near the top on the happiness scale, with 57% reporting they were very happy with their jobs. Clergy again topped this survey, with with 67% very happy.

Previous work had shown that job satisfaction increases with prestige or social standings, and many of the people reporting high satisfaction and happiness also had jobs respected by society, Smith said. Some workers whose jobs have a high degree of prestige, however, such as doctors and lawyers, did not make the list of the top 12 most satisfied or happy. Those jobs also involve great responsibility and large opportunities for stress, Smith said.

The General Social Survey, supported by the National Science Foundation, has been conducted since 1972, and is based on interviews of randomly selected people who represent a scientifically accurate cross section of Americans. A total of 27,587 people were interviewed for the job satisfaction and happiness portion of the survey. Unlike opinion polls, which ask people about topics related to current events, the GSS captures changes in opinion to issues that remain of enduring importance in society.