The study by Quality of Work Life called this trend the “pre-retirement bounce” – with both age groups rating their work-related quality of life well above 3.5.
However, the same survey also shows that the gap between male and female job satisfaction become a lot narrower as their relative ages increase.
Researchers believe this may be due to the prospect of a higher pension for men to enjoy, along with the opportunity to concentrate more on hobbies, while women have less flexibility while they work and feel once they retire they will be bound to domestic duties.
Commenting on the research, Mike Emmot, advisor on public policy at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said the survey’s pre-retirement bounce was “not surprising”.
“We’ve done work on employee attitudes and it shows that when you’re measuring things like satisfaction, it tends to start high when young people join the labour market in their early twenties but then it tends to fall off […] pretty rapidly,” he explained.
Mr Emmot added that by the time people reach their fifties, they are likely to have either achieved or failed to achieve their earlier career aspirations.
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