That's higher than we expected, to be frank.
89% of Irish people aged 18 and over have said that they are satisfied with their life and satisfied with their jobs, according to a new survey by the Central Statistics Office.
The CSO published the data as part of its Personal and Work-Life Balance Survey which was carried out in the third quarter of 2021.
The survey focused primarily on those in employment but it also looked at barriers to work for persons not currently in employment.
Of the 11% who said they were dissatisfied with their work, they cited work pressures, such as having to work long hours or more than their contracted hours, and lack of promotional opportunities as reasons for dissatisfaction.
Of those dissatisfied with life, nearly six in ten (58%) found it hard to make ends meet, while almost one in seven (15%) were in poor health.
For people currently not in employment, the main barrier to returning to work was long-standing health problems (28%), followed by caring for dependent family or friends (13%) and childcare issues (11%).
"Despite living through more than 18 months of the pandemic and its associated restrictions on our personal and working lives, life and job satisfaction rates remained high amongst the Irish population when the survey was conducted during the months of July, August, and September 2021," said Maureen Delamere, statistician at the CSO.
"Almost nine in 10 persons were satisfied or very satisfied with their life as a whole. Our data analysis shows that there are many factors which can influence life satisfaction such as physical health, the ability to make ends meet, support from family, friends, and neighbours, and whether a person is working or not."
She added: "One’s employment status is a factor. More than nine in 10 (92%) persons who were working were contented with life, compared with over four in five (82%) of those who were not in employment. For those in employment, nine in 10 (89%) were satisfied or very satisfied with their job."
Those least satisfied with their jobs, unsurprisingly, were those in short term or temporary employment.
"Almost one quarter (24%) of temporary employees said they were likely to leave their job within the next six months, double the likelihood of their permanent equivalents (12%)," Delamere said.
"Part-time workers with a short length of service with their current employer are nearly twice as likely as their full-time equivalents to leave their organisation in the short term – 25% compared with one in seven (14%) full-time employees with less than five years’ service.”
