What makes a job better? Survey evidence from job changers

The data discussed in this article come from the 2021, 2022, and 2023 versions of SHED, an annual survey of more than 11,000 adults. The survey contains extensive information about respondents’ financial well-being, as well as their employment situations and sources of income. The survey is nationally representative and based on a primarily address-based probability sample, where households that do not initially have internet access are provided with internet access to complete the survey. All analyses use weights designed to match the demographic characteristics of the national population according to the Current Population Survey.

The specific questions that we focus on were new in 2021 and asked of job changers. Job changers are defined as individuals who were employed at the time of the survey, reported starting a new job in the last year, and whose current main job is different from their main job a year before. Job changers were presented with a series of characteristics alongside the question, “Are each of the following better, the same, or worse at the main job you have now than the one you had a year ago?” The characteristics are the following: pay or benefits, opportunities for advancement, your interest in the work, physical demands of the job, and work–life balance. Respondents were then asked, “Overall, is the main job you have now better, the same, or worse than the one you had a year ago?”

In the sample, around 13 percent of workers changed jobs in the past year. Job changes in the SHED were the most common in 2022, coinciding with the period known as the Great Resignation. In 2022, 15 percent of all workers changed jobs, compared with 11 percent in 2021 and 14 percent in 2023. We show summary statistics for all workers in the sample, those with job changes, and those with job changes in each year of the sample separately. (See table 1.)

A notable difference between all workers in the sample and those who change jobs was that job changers were much more likely to be young. We also saw small differences by education and income, which interestingly showed opposite effects. Higher-educated individuals were more likely to change jobs, while individuals with lower family income were also more likely to change jobs. There were not many differences between the years in terms of who changed jobs, but 2022 had the smallest share of job changers laid off, perhaps reflecting the strong job market that year. Whether or not an individual was laid off from a job may have driven differences in their job search and subsequent job quality. In the Differences between voluntary and involuntary job changes section, we provide a separate analysis comparing job changers who experienced a layoff to those who did not.

Chart 1 shows respondents’ self-reported changes in particular job characteristics and the overall quality of their new job, compared with their old job, among respondents who changed jobs over the prior year. Sixty-nine percent of job changes resulted in a job that the respondent felt was better overall than their previous position, while 23 percent felt the job was the same overall and 8 percent felt it was worse. Improvements in pay or benefits accompanied 59 percent of job changes, and a greater interest in the work accompanied 54 percent. Somewhat fewer, though still substantial, shares of job changers saw improvements in opportunities for advancement and work–life balance. Work–life balance and pay and benefits were tied as the job characteristics most likely to be worse, at 16 percent.

Table 2 displays changes in job characteristics by year, showing that respondents tended to make more positive job changes in 2022 than they did in 2021 or 2023.

The biggest difference across the years was in the share that said pay and benefits were better at their new job, which was 63 percent in 2022, compared with 56 percent in 2021 and 57 percent in 2023. This is consistent with strong wage and benefit growth in 2022. Other job characteristics were also at least as likely or more likely to improve for job changers in 2022 compared with job changers in 2021 or 2023.

How well do job characteristics predict overall job quality?

To understand which job characteristics are most predictive of a worker saying that their new job was better overall, we compute error rates of each characteristic. These error rates are fractions of observations where (1) the characteristic is better, but the job is the same or worse or (2) the characteristic is the same or worse and the job is better overall. (See table 3.) We also separately calculate the share of job changes that have a better job characteristic but the same or worse overall self-assessed job quality and the share of job changes that have the same or worse job characteristic but better self-assessed overall job quality. The error rate is the smallest for interest in the work, followed by pay and benefits, advancement opportunities, and work–life balance. Changes in physical demands appear less predictive of whether a job is better. The error rates associated with the job characteristic being worse or the same but the job quality being better are higher than those where the job characteristic is better but the self-assessed job quality is worse.

We also calculate the share of jobs that are better overall, conditional on the specific job characteristic being better, the same, or worse, respectively. (See table 3.) The measured job characteristics are clearly associated with overall self-reported job quality. Job changes where a characteristic improved are the most likely to be better overall, and those where the characteristic was worse have the lowest share of overall job improvements.

Interest in the work stands out as very predictive in determining overall self-reported job quality, with 90 percent of job changes where interest in the work improved being associated with a job improvement overall and only 21 percent of job changes where interest in the work declined being associated with the job being better overall. The other job characteristics have sizeable shares of job changers who experienced a decline in that job characteristic but still felt the job was better overall. For example, over 40 percent of jobs where work–life balance, physical demands, or pay and benefits were worse were still seen as overall better jobs.