A central theme of this study is that "a general increase in their educational and economic status has placed many American workers in a position where having an interesting job is now as important as having a job that pays well" and that the organization of work "has not changed fast enough to keep up with rapid and wide scale changes in worker attitudes, aspirations and values." From this premise it is reasonable to infer that the level of worker discontent has significantly increased in recent years.
Yet a review of available research and statistical evidence offers very limited support for this hypothesis. For this purpose we have explored two types of data: (1) job satisfaction survey findings, and (2) those statistical indicators which have frequently been cited as manifestations of worker discontent, such as quit rates, strikes, absenteeism, and productivity.
Job Satisfaction Surveys, in a recent review of the extensive literature on job satisfaction, Robert Kahn reports that some 2,000 surveys of "job satisfaction" were conducted in the United States over a period of several decades. These surveys have varied greatly in scope and design, from intensive studies of workers in a particular plant, occupation, or industry to much more general polls covering a national cross section of the work force. In spite of these differences, Kahn as well as earlier observers has noted a certain consistency in the response patterns. "Few people call themselves extremely satisfied with their jobs, but still fewer report extreme dissatisfaction. The modal response is on the positive side of neutrality 'pretty satisfied/ The proportion dissatisfied ranges from 10 to 21 per cent . . . Commercial polls, especially those of the Roper organization, asked direct questions about job satisfaction in hundreds of samples and seldom found the proportion of dissatisfied response exceeding 20 per cent." Neither Kahn nor other scholars could detect a consistent trend in job satisfaction from the available data.
Statistical Indicators: It is not unreasonable to infer, as does the task force report, that job dissatisfaction will be reflected in a variety of cost increasing worker behaviors, such as low productivity, high voluntary turnover, high absenteeism, and increased strike activity. Research evidence based mainly on specific plant or industry studies is available to support at least some of these direct relationships, notably in the case of turnover and absenteeism. If worker discontent has been significantly increasing, some indication of this might be reflected in the overall trends of the relevant statistical indicators. Yet the evidence in this respect is inconclusive:
- Labor turnover. A detailed multivariate analysis of quit rates of manufacturing workers recently completed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that year to year fluctuations in these rates over a 20 year period are largely explained by cyclical variations in job opportunities, as measured by the rate of new hires, and that there has been no discernible trend in the quit rate over this period.
- Absenteeism. In the absence of any direct program for statistical reporting of absenteeism trends, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has analyzed data from the Current Population Survey on trends in the proportion of workers who have been absent from their jobs for all or part of a week due to illness or other personal reasons. This initial analysis does point to a small increase in worker absence rates since 1966. The average daily rate of unscheduled absences rose from 3.3 per cent in 1967 to 3.6 per cent in 1972, an increase of about 10 per cent. The data are, however, far from conclusive, and do not provide a basis for generalization longer term trends or their causes.
- Strikes. A sharp increase in the level of strike activity was recorded in the second half of the 1960s and in the early 1970s. Man days of idleness due to strikes rose from 0.13 per cent of estimated working time in 1961 65 to 0.26 per cent in 1966 71. However, the incidence of strikes normally tends to increase during inflationary periods. Strike idleness, as a percentage of working time, was actually considerably higher during the years immediately following the end of World War II (1946 50) and following the outbreak of the Korean War (1952 53) than during the more recent period of rapid price increases. Moreover, "bread and butter" issues, such as pay, benefits, job security, and union organization or security issues, have continued to account for all but a modest percentage of all strikes. In 1971, only 5.5 percent of strike idleness was attributed to plant administration or other working condition issues.
- Productivity. Productivity growth, as measured by output per man hour in the private economy, which had experienced a longer term growth trend of about 3 3 V2 per cent a year, slackened appreciably following the mid 1960s and dropped to less than 1 per cent a year in 1969 and 1970. Declines in productivity growth have occurred in the past during or immediately after periods of high economic activity. The productivity growth rate rebounded sharply, moreover, in 1971 72, thus suggesting that cyclical factors, rather than any deep seated worker unrest, were mainly responsible for the previous decline.
- Labor force participation. Abstention from work or work seeking activity is the ultimate form of rejection of work as an institution. Yet there has been no evidence of a downtrend in the overall proportion of the population, 16 years and over, reported as in the labor force. In fact, this percentage has increased over the past two decades, from 59.9 per cent in 1950 to 61.3 per cent in 1970.
