Business owners score high in health and job satisfaction indices, according to recent data from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.
White Collar Occupations Tend to be Healthier
Business owners once again lead all major occupational groups in overall wellbeing in 2010 with a Well-Being Index score of 73.3, according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, followed closely by professionals (72.9) and managers/executives (72).
Although blue collar farming/forestry professionals rank fourth in overall wellbeing with an index score of 69.2, white collar professions tend to score higher on the Well-Being Index. Two other white collar professions, sales and clerical, rank fifth and sixth, and are then followed by five blue collar professions.
Manufacturing (64.4) and transportation (63.8) workers have the lowest wellbeing scores. However, all occupational groups have seen a slight increase in wellbeing scores in 2010 compared with last year, and transportation and manufacturing rank second and third in score increases of 1.8 and 1.7 points, respectively. Clerical workers had the highest increase of 1.9 points.
Job Satisfaction Can Tie to Well-Being
A key factor that contribute to business owners’ higher wellbeing score is related to how they view their workplaces. Business owners have the highest level of job satisfaction (94.2% satisfied), followed by farming/forestry workers (90.7%).
Manufacturing workers have the lowest level of job satisfaction (83.1%). However, not all professions have equivalent levels of well-being and job satisfaction. For example, sales professionals rank fifth on the Well-Being Index but next-to-last in the job satisfaction (83.9%).
Obesity, Smoking Affect Well-Being
Looking at rates of obesity and smoking among professions, it becomes apparent there is a much stronger correlation between these behaviors and well-being than that between job satisfaction and well-being. Transportation workers have the highest level of obesity (35.7%) and the third-highest smoking rate (27.5%) among the occupations measured.
In addition, manufacturing workers have the second-highest obesity rate (29.8%) and fourth-highest smoking rate (27.3%). Construction workers, who rank seventh in well-being, rank first in smoking (32.2%).
Conversely, professionals, who rank second-highest in overall well-being, display the lowest rates of obesity (22.6%) and smoking (12.6%). Business owners have the second-lowest rate of smoking (16.9%), and third- lowest rate of obesity (23.5%). Farming/forestry workers have a slightly lower obesity rate than business owners (23.3%).
6 in 10 US Adults Overweight or Obese
Other recent Well-Being Index data indicates a combined 62.6% of US adults 18 and older are either overweight (36%) or obese (26.6%) as of Q3 2010. But obesity levels are steady so far in 2010, with the percentage of Americans who were obese in the third quarter of this year on par with the previous two quarters.
About the Data: Most results are based on more than 123,520 telephone interviews with national employed adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Jan. 2, 2010-Aug. 19, 2010, as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.
