Performers are one of the happiest careers in the United States.
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, performers rate their career happiness 4.2 out of 5 stars which puts them in the top 3% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy performers 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Lyricist | 4.3 | $26k |
| Singer | 4.3 | $63k |
| Music artist | 4.3 | $63k |
| Actor | 4.2 | $49k |
| Performer | 4.2 | $37k |
| Comedian | 4.2 | $31k |
| Choreographer | 4.2 | $43k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are performers happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do performers find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as performers?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are performer’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are performers making the best use of their abilities?
Are performers happy with their salary?
Performers rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.9/5. Performers tend to be quite unhappy with their salary, with very few reporting satisfaction with their pay.
We asked performers how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
2.9 out of 5 stars
230 performers
17% of performers rated their compensation 5 stars
18% of performers rated their compensation 4 stars
25% of performers rated their compensation 3 stars
23% of performers rated their compensation 2 stars
17% of performers rated their compensation 1 stars
Do performers find their jobs meaningful?
On average, performers rate the meaningfulness of their work a 4.0/5. Unlike many careers, performers have little difficulty finding meaning in their work, and it likely constitutes one of the main reasons people become performers.
We asked performers how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
4.0 out of 5 stars
243 performers
47% of performers rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
22% of performers rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
18% of performers rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
9% of performers rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
5% of performers rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as performers?
Performers rated their personality fit with their work an average of 4.3/5. The majority of performers find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked performers how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
4.3 out of 5 stars
267 performers
56% of performers rated their career fit 5 stars
28% of performers rated their career fit 4 stars
11% of performers rated their career fit 3 stars
3% of performers rated their career fit 2 stars
3% of performers rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a performer’s work environment?
As a whole, performers rated their enjoyment of their work environment 4.1/5. A solid majority of performers enjoy their work environment, probably contributing to overall higher satisfaction with working as a performer.
We asked performers how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
4.1 out of 5 stars
266 performers
45% of performers rated their work environment 5 stars
32% of performers rated their work environment 4 stars
14% of performers rated their work environment 3 stars
5% of performers rated their work environment 2 stars
4% of performers rated their work environment 1 stars
Are performers making the best use of their abilities?
Former performers on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 4.0/5. Most performers surveyed find that they manage to use their abilities to their fullest as a performer, which helps contribute to higher career satisfaction in the long term.
We asked performers how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
4.0 out of 5 stars
267 performers
42% of performers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
27% of performers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
20% of performers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
7% of performers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
4% of performers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars