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Fewer than one-third of U.S. workers felt "engaged" in their jobs in 2014, and a majority of employees, 51 percent, were "not engaged," with 17.5 percent " actively disengaged," according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday.
Gallup defines "engaged" employees as those who are involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work and workplace. Among job categories, managers, executives and officers had the highest levels of engagement last year at 38.4 percent. This group outpaced every other job category Gallup tracked and saw the biggest gains in engagement from 2013, moving up nearly four points from 34.7 percent.
At the other end of the spectrum, employees in manufacturing or production jobs recorded the lowest levels of engagement with an average of 23 percent. Transportation sector workers stood at 25.5 percent of engagement and service workers were tagged at 28.2 percent, well below the national average, according to Gallup.
Among the generations, traditionalists -- those born between 1925 and 1945 -- are the most engaged group, at 42.2 percent, possibly because the few who still work do so by choice and enjoy their jobs. Millennials -- those born after 1981 -- are the least engaged group, at 28.9 percent.
Although the U.S. economy is improving, workers in this generation may not be getting the jobs they had hoped for coming out of college.
Gallup's employee engagement data reveal that millennials are particularly less likely than other generations to say they "have the opportunity to do what they do best" at work. This finding suggests that millennials may not be working in jobs that allow them to use their talents and strengths, thus creating disengagement, Gallup found.
The Gallup poll comes at a time when overall wages in the U.S. remain low as the economy rebounds from the economic downturn much more slowly than expected, which has affected wages and the ability of workers to advance by changing employers. Still, the level of engaged U.S. workers is the highest on record, since Gallup began examining the topic in 2000.
Oddly, what may seem like low levels of engagement among Americans is far higher than the world's average, as only 13 percent of workers worldwide feel engaged at work, Gallup found.
