Street vendors are below average when it comes to 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, street vendors rate their career happiness 2.9 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 22% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy street vendors 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Customer success manager | 2.9 | $70k |
| Barista | 2.9 | $18k |
| Caterer | 2.9 | $28k |
| Lodging manager | 2.9 | $47k |
| Street vendor | 2.9 | $4k |
| Merchandiser | 2.9 | $26k |
| Concierge | 2.8 | $14k |
| Lawn care specialist | 2.8 | $2k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are street vendors happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do street vendors find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as street vendors?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are street vendor’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are street vendors making the best use of their abilities?
Are street vendors happy with their salary?
Street vendors rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.8/5. Street vendors tend to be quite unhappy with their salary, with very few reporting satisfaction with their pay.
We asked street vendors how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
2.8 out of 5 stars
124 street vendors
8% of street vendors rated their compensation 5 stars
22% of street vendors rated their compensation 4 stars
28% of street vendors rated their compensation 3 stars
22% of street vendors rated their compensation 2 stars
20% of street vendors rated their compensation 1 stars
Do street vendors find their jobs meaningful?
On average, street vendors rate the meaningfulness of their work a 2.3/5. The majority of street vendors struggle to find any sort of meaning in their work, likely resulting in less satisfaction with the career overall.
We asked street vendors how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
2.3 out of 5 stars
125 street vendors
6% of street vendors rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
12% of street vendors rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
26% of street vendors rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
25% of street vendors rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
31% of street vendors rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as street vendors?
Street vendors rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.6/5. The majority of street vendors find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked street vendors how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.6 out of 5 stars
130 street vendors
23% of street vendors rated their career fit 5 stars
37% of street vendors rated their career fit 4 stars
26% of street vendors rated their career fit 3 stars
9% of street vendors rated their career fit 2 stars
5% of street vendors rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a street vendor’s work environment?
As a whole, street vendors rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.0/5. Most of them tend to enjoy, or at least not be actively bothered by, their work environment.
We asked street vendors how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.0 out of 5 stars
130 street vendors
13% of street vendors rated their work environment 5 stars
23% of street vendors rated their work environment 4 stars
30% of street vendors rated their work environment 3 stars
22% of street vendors rated their work environment 2 stars
12% of street vendors rated their work environment 1 stars
Are street vendors making the best use of their abilities?
Former street vendors on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 2.4/5. Most feel that their skills are being underutilized in the career, probably leading to more general dissatisfaction with being a street vendor.
We asked street vendors how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
2.4 out of 5 stars
132 street vendors
6% of street vendors rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
14% of street vendors rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
20% of street vendors rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
33% of street vendors rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
28% of street vendors rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars