Healthcare was found to be the unhappiest industry in 2023, according to a report from human resources company BambooHR.
The company analyzed employee net promoter score data — which measures employee satisfaction — from more than 1.4 billion self-reported scores from 1,600 companies across eight industries from January 2020 through June 2023.
Although the rate of employee happiness has declined in the last three years in all industries — down 6 percent per year — healthcare has seen a decreasing satisfaction rate of 40 percent since 2020. From 2022 to 2023, that rate accelerated to an 89 percent decrease in satisfaction.
A 2022 report by Elsevier Health found nearly half of U.S. healthcare workers (47 percent) plan to leave their current positions by 2025 and among them, 39 percent plan to leave the healthcare profession altogether.
In the face of these statistics, a 2023 Harvard Business Review analysis found that healthcare professionals — including clinicians, administrative workers and maintenance staff — are more likely to commit to a values-driven employer that prioritizes high-quality, patient-centered care.