47% of Hong Kong employees happy at work, lowest among 8 Asia-Pacific economies: survey

Less than half of Hong Kong employees feel happy at work, a survey has found, ranking the city’s workplace happiness the lowest among eight Asia-Pacific economies, including Singapore.

Recruitment platform Jobsdb on Friday released its survey of 1,020 local workers. The poll also found that 44 per cent of local respondents reported burnout at work and that about 66 per cent were dissatisfied with their stress levels.

Hong Kong’s workplace happiness ranked the lowest among the eight markets surveyed, each covering about 1,000 respondents.

Workers in Indonesia and the Philippines were the happiest, with 82 per cent and 77 per cent reporting that they felt happy at work, respectively.

They were followed by Malaysia at 70 per cent, Thailand at 67 per cent, New Zealand at 65 per cent, Australia at 57 per cent, Singapore at 56 per cent and finally Hong Kong at 47 per cent.

“In the emerging markets, Indonesia and the Philippines, they generally have a more positive and sanguine view of life, so that explains part of the cultural differences between the gap,” said Bill Lee Chern-hsing, managing director of Jobsdb Hong Kong.