Bookkeepers are one of the least happy careers in the United States.
At CareerExplorer, we conduct an ongoing survey with millions of people and ask them how satisfied they are with their careers. As it turns out, bookkeepers rate their career happiness 2.7 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 14% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy bookkeepers are to similar careers in the industry. Take a look at the results below:
Salaries and satisfaction ratings in similar careers
| Career | Satisfaction | Avg Salary |
|---|---|---|
| Fundraising manager | 2.8 | $115k |
| Risk management specialist | 2.8 | $73k |
| Budget analyst | 2.8 | $80k |
| Executive assistant | 2.8 | $62k |
| Bank manager | 2.8 | $132k |
| Bookkeeper | 2.7 | $46k |
| Compensation and benefits manager | 2.7 | $128k |
| Securities and commodities broker | 2.7 | $63k |
| Financial analyst | 2.7 | $92k |
| Financial advisor | 2.7 | $94k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are bookkeepers happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do bookkeepers find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as bookkeepers?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are bookkeeper’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are bookkeepers making the best use of their abilities?
Are bookkeepers happy with their salary?
Bookkeepers rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.9/5. Bookkeepers tend to be quite unhappy with their salary, with very few reporting satisfaction with their pay.
We asked bookkeepers how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
2.9 out of 5 stars
2983 bookkeepers
8% of bookkeepers rated their compensation 5 stars
24% of bookkeepers rated their compensation 4 stars
32% of bookkeepers rated their compensation 3 stars
22% of bookkeepers rated their compensation 2 stars
15% of bookkeepers rated their compensation 1 stars
Do bookkeepers find their jobs meaningful?
On average, bookkeepers rate the meaningfulness of their work a 2.3/5. The majority of bookkeepers struggle to find any sort of meaning in their work, likely resulting in less satisfaction with the career overall.
We asked bookkeepers how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
2.3 out of 5 stars
2986 bookkeepers
6% of bookkeepers rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
10% of bookkeepers rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
22% of bookkeepers rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
27% of bookkeepers rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
34% of bookkeepers rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as bookkeepers?
Bookkeepers rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.5/5. The majority of bookkeepers find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked bookkeepers how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.5 out of 5 stars
3187 bookkeepers
23% of bookkeepers rated their career fit 5 stars
32% of bookkeepers rated their career fit 4 stars
25% of bookkeepers rated their career fit 3 stars
12% of bookkeepers rated their career fit 2 stars
7% of bookkeepers rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a bookkeeper’s work environment?
As a whole, bookkeepers rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.4/5. Most of them tend to enjoy, or at least not be actively bothered by, their work environment.
We asked bookkeepers how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.4 out of 5 stars
3184 bookkeepers
19% of bookkeepers rated their work environment 5 stars
30% of bookkeepers rated their work environment 4 stars
26% of bookkeepers rated their work environment 3 stars
16% of bookkeepers rated their work environment 2 stars
8% of bookkeepers rated their work environment 1 stars
Are bookkeepers making the best use of their abilities?
Former bookkeepers on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 2.7/5. Bookkeepers tend to feel that they don’t manage to use their abilities to their fullest, when compared to other careers.
We asked bookkeepers how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
2.7 out of 5 stars
3191 bookkeepers
10% of bookkeepers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
17% of bookkeepers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
25% of bookkeepers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
26% of bookkeepers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
22% of bookkeepers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars