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A new survey suggests that many Americans are employed but not thriving, with 60% saying their jobs fall short of what researchers define as “quality employment,” lacking essentials such as fair pay and pathways for growth.
The findings come from advocacy group Jobs for the Future (JFF), which partnered with Gallup, the Families & Workers Fund, and the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research to measure how workers experience their jobs.
JFF argues that traditional government statistics, focused mainly on wages and employment rates, don’t capture the true health of the labor market.
“We recognize that not only has the way we measure the economy not kept up with way work and the economy is changing, but it has never been sufficient,” said Molly Blankenship, director of solutions design and delivery at JFF. “The workforce is the engine of economic prosperity in the US, and this gives us a better look under the hood.”
How workers define a ‘quality job’
According to JFF, a quality job meets five key criteria: fair and stable pay, a safe and inclusive workplace, opportunities for growth, a sense of voice and agency, and a predictable structure.
By those standards, only 40% of the more than 18,000 workers surveyed said they hold quality jobs. The remaining 60% reported significant gaps in stability, pay, or development opportunities.
Some 62% of respondents said their work schedules are unpredictable, while roughly one-third reported struggling financially. Only 27% said their pay allows them to feel financially comfortable, and nearly 3 in 10 described themselves as “just getting by” or “finding it difficult to get by.”
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Growth and respect still matter most
Pay alone is not the only concern. The study found that employees also prioritize respect, safety, and chances for advancement. About one in four workers said their jobs offer no promotion or development opportunities.
Blankenship said the results reflect long-standing structural issues in the economy. “We suspected when we started this work that the majority of Americans were not in jobs that were helping them,” she said. “This data confirms what we suspected.”
The research adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that job quality, rather than quantity, remains a critical measure of workforce health and organizational performance.
