Income reclaims top spot as most important aspect of employment, national survey finds

Income generated from employment has been deemed the most important aspect of work, according to the results from this year’s State of the Nation survey.

The results of the scientific survey, conducted by Statistician and University of Malta Lecturer Vincent Marmarà, together with Strategic Communications Consultant Lou Bondi, were announced on Thursday (today).

The survey, now in its fourth edition, was conducted through a sample of 1,064 people aged 16 and over, representing Malta’s society. The margin of error for the survey was three per cent.

In one of the sections, respondents were asked to order five aspects of work according to importance, with one being given to that which they deem is most important, and five to the least.

Income from employment ranked top of the list with 2.30, going up in priority for the respondents when compared to 2023’s 2.53.

This marks a return to top spot for this aspect, having previously been deemed as the most important factor in both 2021 and 2022.

Satisfaction from work dropped to second place at 2.41 (2023: 2.40), continuing the steady decline that this factor has experienced since 2021 (2021: 2.24; 2022: 2.33)

Job security, whilst consistently placing third in the list, continued to experience fluctuations from one year to another, with respondents ranking it 3.31 in importance. In 2023 this was 3.13, while it ranked 3.30 and 2.69 in 2022 and 2021, respectively.

This could be indicative of changing employee trends where individuals are now more willing to switch jobs than they were in the past, especially now that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have subsided.

Additionally, the survey pointed out that individuals have continued to give greater priority to their work-life balance, with flexibility of hours experiencing steady year-to-year growth in importance.

In fact, respondents ranked this at 3.41, a sharp increase from the 3.71 that it was classified at in 2021.

The final factor that individuals were asked to classify was appreciation and recognition at the workplace. While this increased in importance from 2021 (4.19) to 2022 (3.46) and remained stable in 2023 (3.47), it dropped back down in the list in 2024 at 3.57.

It is important to note that this year’s study took place in May, when the campaigns for the European Parliament elections were in full swing. However, there were also a number of events to take note of in previous studies, such as the heights of the pandemic in 2021. In 2022, the survey took place a short time after the General Election.

The 2023 survey was deemed as the one that marked a return to relative normality for Malta.

During a conference announcing the results, Mr Bondi said that after four years, it is now increasingly possible to compare the results with previous years and “better assess where the country is going.”