NEW YORK, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- U.S. workers through good times and bad have grown increasingly dissatisfied with their jobs, a private research group said Tuesday.
In a 2009 survey that included 5,000 households, 45 percent of the respondents indicated they were satisfied with their jobs, The Conference Board said.
The number is a sharp decline from 1987, when 61.1 percent indicated they were satisfied with their work.
"While one in 10 Americans is now unemployed, their working compatriots of all ages and incomes continue to grow increasingly unhappy," said the director of the Consumer Research Center at the Conference Board Lynn Franco.
In addition, "the downward trend in job satisfaction could spell trouble for the overall engagement of U.S. employees and ultimately employee productivity," Franco said.
The numbers "throw up a big, red flag, because the increasing dissatisfaction is not just a 'survivor syndrome' artifact of having co-workers and neighbors laid off in the recession," said John Gibbons, program director of employee engagement research and services at The Conference Board.
Along with the data collected, The Conference Board said 22 percent of U.S. workers indicated they do not believe they will be in their current job in a year.
