In their own words: What Workers Like and Dislike about their Jobs

Belot, Michèle, Xiaoying Liu and Vaios Triantafyllou

No 21044, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: This paper provides novel evidence on the key drivers of job satisfaction. We ask individuals to describe, in their own words, what they like and dislike about their jobs. These open-ended questions allow us to capture what comes to mind most naturally. We analyze the resulting free-text responses using GPT-4 to identify and classify categories of job amenities. Our main study draws on a sample of 500 full-time U.S.-based employees aged 30 to 55. We find that flexible work arrangements, workplace relationships, and autonomy consistently rank among the most valued aspects of work, while poor workplace relationships, long work hours, and heavy workloads dominate the list of dislikes and rank above factors such as pay. Our approach offers a fresh lens on what job amenities workers are most satisfied and dissatisfied with.

Keywords: Large Language Models; Job satisfaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C88 J28 J33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-01
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