The survey, conducted by The Leadership Factor on behalf of IronmongeryDirect, and released to mark World Plumbing Day (March 11^th), asked 500 UK tradespeople about their level of job satisfaction and found that across all trades, 56% are happy with their careers, compared to just 37% across all industries.

In fact, plumbers are amongst the trades with the most job satisfaction, with 61% saying they enjoy their job. Furthermore, almost half (44%) say they are proud of what they do.

Across all trades, around a third of workers say they are happy with both their work-life balance (32%) and level of income (31%), reports HVPmag.

Tradies were also asked exactly which parts of their work they find the most enjoyable. The most popular answer was interaction with customers (22%), while the ability to continually learn on the job also ranked highly (21%). 

The top five things tradespeople enjoy about their work are: 

• Interacting with customers – 22% 
• Learning something new – 21% 
• Working outdoors – 20%  
• Job variety – 20%  
• Seeing visible accomplishments each day – 19%  

When it comes to individual trades, bricklayers are the most likely tradespeople to say they enjoy their job (69%), but interestingly are also the least likely to feel proud of their work (19%). 

Electricians (63%) and plumbers (61%) also have really high job satisfaction, while at the other end of the scale, building surveyors are the least likely tradespeople to enjoy their work (43%). 

Painter and decorators and electricians are the most likely tradies to feel a sense of pride about their work (58%). 

Millennial tradespeople are the least likely to enjoy their job, with only 43% stating that they do so, while those over the age of 65 have the greatest career satisfaction (69%). 

More men said they enjoy their job (60%) than women (50%), but women are more likely to be proud of their work (51% vs 45%). 

Dominick Sandford, Managing Director at IronmongeryDirect and ElectricalDirect, said: “It’s great to see that so many plumbers enjoy the work they do, and feel a real sense of accomplishment for their projects.

“We’ve always believed that for many tradies, their work isn’t just a job, but truly a passion and a way of life, and that was echoed by the majority of tradespeople in our study.”