Librarians are about average in terms of happiness.
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, librarians rate their career happiness 3.3 out of 5 stars which puts them in the top 46% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy librarians 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Clergy member | 3.6 | $36k |
| Graduate teaching assistant | 3.4 | $20k |
| Art teacher | 3.4 | $45k |
| Library assistant | 3.3 | $10k |
| Librarian | 3.3 | $55k |
| Tailor | 3.2 | $42k |
| Archivist | 3.2 | $41k |
| Funeral director | 3.2 | $31k |
| Distance learning coordinator | 3.2 | $79k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are librarians happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do librarians find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as librarians?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are librarian’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are librarians making the best use of their abilities?
Are librarians happy with their salary?
Librarians rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.0/5. Librarians tend to be quite unhappy with their salary, with very few reporting satisfaction with their pay.
We asked librarians how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
3.0 out of 5 stars
1033 librarians
11% of librarians rated their compensation 5 stars
23% of librarians rated their compensation 4 stars
32% of librarians rated their compensation 3 stars
19% of librarians rated their compensation 2 stars
15% of librarians rated their compensation 1 stars
Do librarians find their jobs meaningful?
On average, librarians rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.0/5. While most librarians aren’t very fulfilled by their work, some people may still manage to find meaning in it.
We asked librarians how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
3.0 out of 5 stars
1035 librarians
14% of librarians rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
21% of librarians rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
28% of librarians rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
22% of librarians rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
16% of librarians rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as librarians?
Librarians rated their personality fit with their work an average of 4.0/5. The majority of librarians find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked librarians how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
4.0 out of 5 stars
1112 librarians
35% of librarians rated their career fit 5 stars
38% of librarians rated their career fit 4 stars
17% of librarians rated their career fit 3 stars
6% of librarians rated their career fit 2 stars
3% of librarians rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a librarian’s work environment?
As a whole, librarians rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.8/5. A solid majority of librarians enjoy their work environment, probably contributing to overall higher satisfaction with working as a librarian.
We asked librarians how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.8 out of 5 stars
1109 librarians
30% of librarians rated their work environment 5 stars
36% of librarians rated their work environment 4 stars
20% of librarians rated their work environment 3 stars
10% of librarians rated their work environment 2 stars
5% of librarians rated their work environment 1 stars
Are librarians making the best use of their abilities?
Former librarians on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.0/5. Librarians tend to feel that they don’t manage to use their abilities to their fullest, when compared to other careers.
We asked librarians how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
3.0 out of 5 stars
1109 librarians
14% of librarians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
23% of librarians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
25% of librarians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
25% of librarians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
13% of librarians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars