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New Poll: The Happiest People in America? Pastors!
OK... so guess who the happiest group of people in the US are today? Uh-huh... Pastors! That's according to a new poll by the University of Chicago. Pastors beat out Firefighters, Transportation ticket and reservation agents, and Housekeepers and butlers to make the top of the list. The least happy? Roofers. (Go figure). Here are some other interesting findings as to what professions are the most and least gratified in their work.
Here are the Top 10 most gratifying jobs and the percentage of subjects who said they were very satisfied with the job:
Clergy—87 percent percent
Firefighters—80 percent percent
Physical therapists—78 percent percent
Authors—74 percent
Special education teachers—70 percent
Teachers—69 percent
Education administrators—68 percent
Painters and sculptors—67 percent
Psychologists—67 percent
Security and financial services salespersons—65 percent
Operating engineers—64 percent
Office supervisors—61 percent
Here are the 10 least gratifying jobs, where few participants reported being very satisfied:
Laborers, except construction—21 percent
Apparel clothing salespersons—24 percent
Handpackers and packagers—24 percent
Food preparers—24 percent
Roofers—25 percent
Cashiers—25 percent
Furniture and home-furnishing salespersons—25 percent
Bartenders—26 percent
Freight, stock and material handlers—26 percent
Waiters and servers—27 percent
FOR DISCUSSSION: Are you buying this new poll? I mean, I’ve seen a good share of happy pastors in my life; but also some really grumpy ones. I’m guessing that if you even the pool out, there would be more frustrated and apathetic pastors than happy ones. Am I wrong? (I know many of the readers here at MMI are having the time of your life in ministry… but I wonder if that’s really the norm?) Another question… as you work with people in your church, do the lists of most and least gratified show themselves to be true? Let’s hear it…
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This post has been viewed 990 times and was added on April 19, 2007 by Todd Rhoades. Filed under: Engaging Culture Trends in Today's Church Share this post with a friend right now! View reactions to this post at other blogs... You can really help us out by subscribing to our free RSS feed with your favorite feed reader, or here at Bloglines. Also, you can add us to your favorites at Technorati.
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I'm Todd Rhoades... the MMI guy. I'm also on the team at Leadership Network (although that doesn't mean that they endorse everything I write here). In my past life, I was the founder and developer of a website named ChurchStaffing.com.
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Posted by RevJeff
Thursday, April 19, 2007 at 9:04 AM
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Posted by Jan
Thursday, April 19, 2007 at 10:56 AM
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Posted by Chris Dillingham
Thursday, April 19, 2007 at 1:04 PM
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Posted by jawbone
Thursday, April 19, 2007 at 2:02 PM
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Posted by Jan
Thursday, April 19, 2007 at 7:04 PM
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Posted by Leonard
Thursday, April 19, 2007 at 8:44 PM
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Posted by
Friday, April 20, 2007 at 7:49 AM
Post Your Comments:Of course - Pastors are “paid” to give that answer…
LOL, my first thought was “Liars!”
It’s interesting that the most happy are those that heal and save, while the least happy are those who just build or sell.
Based on that, I’m thinking “doctors” didn’t make the list because they’re usually swamped with fixing wider ranges of unhealth, rather than restoring and revitalizing, like physical therapists and psychologists do.
“What has long floppy ears, a cotton tail, and goes hop, hop hop? “ The Sunday School teacher asked her class.
Little Johnny answered, “Jesus, but everyone knows it’s really a bunny.
Pastors are primed to give the expected answer. Most of us are living lives of quiet desperation.
Well, I don’t feel that way jawbone. But I think a lot of pastors and their families do.
We are happiest in ministry, really and truly.
But I know a lot of pastor’s wives that are just miserable.
I honestly do not think that much about happiness but I certainly enjoy my life. Might be because I married so well and genuinely like what I do and because I am a child of the king of kings. Nah, that can’t be it, must be the shoes.
Really? What denomination? I left a meeting of ministers yesterday which would probably move the results down into the other category.
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