After years of fierce competition for talent, many employers are breathing a sigh of relief. Job hopping is out, and “job hugging” is in. Quit rates have fallen to their lowest point in nearly a decade, and the power dynamic in the labor market has tilted back toward businesses. But it’s worth asking why workers are holding on. Many aren’t staying because they’re satisfied; they’re staying because they feel stuck. And that’s a problem for businesses as much as it is for workers. So, where’s the ROI?
According to the American Job Quality Study (AJQS)—a new, nationally representative survey conducted by Gallup and led by Jobs for the Future with the Families & Workers Fund and the W.E. Upjohn Institute—only 4 in 10 U.S. workers hold quality jobs: those that provide fair pay, safety, stability, voice, and growth.
Workers with quality jobs report greater well-being than those without quality jobs, including significantly higher job satisfaction (58% vs. 23%), a stronger sense of purpose (60% vs. 34%), and greater happiness (47% vs. 26%). These abstract sentiments hold real business value. Decades of research show that higher satisfaction and purpose are linked to increased productivity, reduced absenteeism, and stronger financial performance.
Engaged Workers Drive Business Success
In other words, improving job quality does more than make workers happy; it’s an often-overlooked business strategy that yields a solid return on investment. When people stay in a job because they feel trapped, they disengage and their performance suffers. They innovate less, collaborate less, and deliver less value per hour of labor. The result is worse than turnover; it’s stagnation.
And stagnation is expensive. Gallup estimates that disengaged employees cost employers 34% of their salary in lost productivity and performance. Across the U.S. economy, that adds up to roughly $1.9 trillion in lost value each year.
That’s the hidden risk of today’s “employer’s market.” You might not be losing workers, but you could be losing what actually drives your business forward: energy, engagement, creativity, and performance.
Low-Cost Ways to Improve Job Quality
The good news: the same data that reveals these risks also points to solutions. Improving job quality doesn’t necessarily require a higher payroll. The AJQS identifies dimensions of quality jobs—beyond pay—that matter to both workers and business outcomes: predictable schedules, a safe and respectful environment, input into decisions that shape one’s work, and opportunities to grow and advance. Implementing these changes is often low-cost with high ROI.
Consider one health care company that focused on just one of those dimensions: worker voice. By involving frontline employees in decisions about how new technology would be implemented, the company saw higher engagement, stronger retention, and measurable improvements in patient care.
Your Investors, Customers, and Future Employees Will Notice
That’s just one example of a broader truth. Whether through greater voice, better scheduling, or clearer paths for learning and advancement, employers that listen and respond to what workers value most earn something hard to buy: loyalty and sustained performance.
Few companies systematically benchmark their jobs across all five dimensions of quality, but those that do are finding it pays off. In a tight-margin economy, investing in job quality yields some of the highest returns available to employers—and it’s becoming a differentiator that investors, customers, and future employees notice.
Improving job quality isn’t about altruism. It’s about unlocking the hidden ROI of an engaged workforce. As the new job quality data makes clear, better jobs aren’t just good for workers—they’re good business.