Analysis of over 2 million tweets about job sentiment indicates significant shifts in where people love and hate their jobs in the U.S.
Monster, a global leader in connecting people to jobs, and Brandwatch, the leading social intelligence company, today announced the results of their second annual Monster and Brandwatch Job Report, a social media study of job sentiment and corresponding interactive infographic on the insights. Revealing where people love and hate their jobs the most in the U.S., the study also analyzed exactly who, what, when, where and why people take to Twitter to discuss how they feel about their jobs, and how those findings differ from the 2015 report.
“Perception of professional happiness is continuously evolving, influenced by a variety of external and personal factors. These range from uncertainty driven by volatile financial markets and the US presidential election, to work environment and employee benefits,” said Matt Anchin, Senior Vice President, Global Communications and Content at Monster. “The latest data shows some drastic changes compared to last year’s report, indicating that people are potentially approaching their work lives differently. Additionally, whether you are a job seeker looking for a new opportunity with high happiness potential or are an employer trying to increase employee satisfaction, it seems that the adage ‘location, location, location’ may just be the most important thing to consider.”
Where do the lovers and haters live?
The most significant insight of the 2016 study is that overall US state population is now a key indicator of job satisfaction. In seven out of the 20 least-populous US states, as ranked by the US Census Bureau, people are tweeting about loving their job at a higher ratio to hating their job:
- Idaho
- Montana
- North Dakota
- Vermont
- Utah
- Maine
- Alaska
- Washington
- Minnesota
- Tennessee
At the same time, the top 10 states in which people on Twitter hate their job at a higher ratio than loving their job are consistent with last year’s results. All are exclusively in the Eastern half of the US, and eight of last year’s 10 lowest-ranked states made a showing again this year. Furthermore, three of the 10 most populous states in the country according to the US Census Bureau – Michigan, Ohio and Florida – appear on this list, suggesting that population size significantly impacts job hate in addition to job love:
- Michigan
- Virginia
- West Virginia
- New Jersey
- Ohio
- Maryland
- Louisiana
- Florida
- Connecticut
- Delaware
When are people loving and hating?
During this study, conducted April 2015-March 2016, Monster and Brandwatch also analyzed how social media job sentiment varied by specific months and days.
While July remains the most hated month of the year, October is now the most loved month, a change from last year’s top month for job love, November.
There has also been a shift in the days of the week that U.S. workers tweet most positively about work, with Thursday overtaking Friday as the day with the highest job love-to-hate ratio.
“With the ever increasing popularity of social media platforms, it’s becoming more and more common for people to publicly share their opinions about anything and everything – both personal and professional – at incredible scale. A collection of social media mentions is an extremely interesting dataset, because it gives you a rare opportunity to evaluate an audience’s natural and unfiltered opinions on a topic,” said Amy Barker, Head of Analytics at Brandwatch. “This study revealed that workplace social dynamics appear to also now play a greater role in job sentiment. Workers tended to refer to ‘people’ in conversations where both job love and job hate is expressed. This suggests that it’s not always about the work, the pay, or the office, but about who you spend every day with.”
Building on data and insights from the 2015 Monster and Brandwatch Job Report, Monster and Brandwatch used Brandwatch Analytics to analyze and compare more than 2 million English-language tweets across both reports, searching for conversations that included words and phrases indicating loving or hating their jobs. In-depth analysis within the study also utilized Monster data on the top skills and job titles in the US. For the full report, including details on the top jobs and job skills in each state, gender demographics of loving vs. hating US jobs, and why people hate their jobs, visit the Monster and Brandwatch Job Report.
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