"Since the beginning of January 2023, employee happiness has been in freefall, showing a strong correlation between economic conditions and employee happiness and engagement," according to Gallup's "State of the Global Workplace 2023" report. It continues: "Job security and income stability are essential factors affecting micro job satisfaction, as well as macro consumer confidence and economic growth."

This unhappiness is hurting businesses as well as individual employees. Low employee engagement reduced global GDP by $8.8 trillion, Gallup found. "If you're not thriving at work, you're unlikely to be thriving at life," the report explains.

That said, happiness varies significantly by industry:

• Despite a small slip from the second to third quarter and from 2022 to 2023, construction still reigns as the happiest industry.
• Travel and hospitality continues to be the only industry with growing employee happiness, with scores improving from the second to third quarter.
• The technology; finance; and restaurant, food, and beverage industries all hit three-year lows in the third quarter.
• Although nonprofit scores remained flat from the second to third quarter, year-over-year satisfaction is up by one point.
• Healthcare employees' happiness rebounded, with a five-point increase from the second quarter, reflecting a 17 percent improvement since June. This upward trend is expected to continue into the fourth quarter.
• Education also bounced back, with an 18 percent increase from June. It was a full point higher than last September.

Several factors contribute to relative levels of satisfaction. Companies with an average employee tenure of less than three years generally have happier staff than those with a longer average tenure. On average, shorter-tenured employees are 6 percent happier.