The Conference Board’s US employment trends index rose in August to a reading of 128.92, up 4.5% from the same month a year ago.  

“The large increase in the employment trends index in August suggests that a significant moderation in employment growth is unlikely to occur in the coming months,” said Gad Levanon, managing director of macroeconomic and labor market research at The Conference Board. “With solid job growth expected to continue, the unemployment rate is likely to go below 5% by year’s end.”

A separate report released today by The Conference Board, “Job Satisfaction: 2015 Edition,” found job satisfaction among American workers rose slightly for the fourth consecutive year in 2014, buoyed by a rapidly tightening labor market,  and now stands at the highest level since 2008. Nevertheless, satisfaction remains stubbornly low in historical terms, with the majority still not satisfied at work, the report found.

The report found 48.3% of Americans are satisfied with their jobs, up from 47.7% in 2013 and an all-time low of 42.6% in 2010. As unemployment plummeted over recent years — from 9.1% in April 2011 to 5.1% in August 2015 — job satisfaction has risen in kind, reflecting heightened competition for talent and the perception of expanded opportunities for turnover and advancement. In fact, absent workers’ sense of growing job availability, overall satisfaction would have actually fallen slightly since 2012.

The report found this negative underlying trend mirrors the long-term picture: While job satisfaction topped 60% in the late 1980s and stood at 58.6% in 1995, a majority of Americans hasn’t been satisfied at work since 2005.

“The past year has seen a definitive shift to a ‘seller’s market’ in talent as the effects of an aging, slow-growing labor force begin to take hold,” said Rebecca Ray, executive VP, knowledge organization and human capital, at The Conference Board and a co-author of the report. “For workers, this has meant higher satisfaction in the form of increased job security and improved career-development prospects. But recovery from the Great Recession remains incomplete for many groups across the demographic spectrum. Looking ahead, more substantial gains in job satisfaction — to levels closer to those of the 1980s and 1990s — will depend on a sustained resurgence in wage growth and continued competitive pressures on employers.”

The report’s findings include:

• Age: Job satisfaction is highest among employees aged 35 to 44, at 50.3%. Young workers were by far the hardest hit by the Great Recession; they struggled to find work that, once found, was likely to be less than satisfying. As a result, only 34.1% of workers under 25 were satisfied in 2014, compared to 44.3% in the prerecession (2005-2007) years. Workers nearing retirement — aged 55 to 64 — also remain substantially less satisfied compared to the prerecession years.
• Income: satisfaction among workers making more than $125,000 stood at 61.6% in 2014, the highest of any group. More surprisingly, those making under $15,000 were, at 41.8% satisfaction, not the least satisfied group: Only 36.3% of those earning $15,000 to $25,000 and 41.2% of those earning $35,000 to $50,000 were satisfied in 2014.
• Census region: At 54.3%, the Pacific states had the highest job satisfaction rate in 2014. Following closely behind were the Mountain states at 53.8%, and the Middle Atlantic at 53.7%. Only 45.6% of workers were satisfied in the South Atlantic states, 2014’s least satisfied region.
• Components of satisfaction: Employers have clear room to improve on several aspects of employee development. In 2014, only 25.4% of workers were satisfied with their companies’ promotion policy, with satisfaction on the performance review process at 30.5% and future growth potential at 33.3% nearly as poor. By contrast, a strong majority, more than 55% of workers, was satisfied with their coworkers, commutes, supervisors and office environments.

The fall 2014 survey of 5,000 US households was conducted for The Conference Board by The Nielsen Company.