What A Good Mood Can Do For You [2004]
Overall social mood and economic growth are closely linked. Comparing the graph of official GDP figures from Statistics New Zealand with our earlier qualitative analysis of mood we see that our last three years of positive mood have been accompanied by significant growth in the national income.
Since 2000, growth in goods and services producing industries has reached 8% while primary industries have had approximately 5% growth over the three years (compared with 4.9% in the 1999-2000 year alone).
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This upward trend flows into job market perceptions. Over the past few years I have assessed people's perceptions of their workplace - on the assumption that if they thought their firm was doing well, their own optimism would be maintained or even improved.
I wasn't prepared for the overwhelming optimism I found - but it does translate into overall patterns of spending over that time.
Survey respondents were asked which of the three descriptions below best described their own workplace:-
| Prosperous & expanding | Stable with good prospects | Static or Declining | |
| 2002 | 46% | 46% | 9% |
| 2003 | 52% | 42% | 5% |
| 2004 | 42% | 45% | 10% |
At the same time, their confidence in their own job security has been enhanced by perceptions of labour shortages.
"If
I left this job it would be hard for my employer to find a replacement
for me"
| 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 |
| 40% | 48% | 51% | 53% |
Job satisfaction, another contributor to wellbeing and optimism, is relatively high with 71% of employees in 2003 (72% in 2004) agreeing that their workplace is "well-managed".
However we should be concerned about people who do not believe their workplace is well-managed since they are also more likely to experience a diminished quality of life. .
Our last three years of positive mood have been accompanied by significant growth in the national income." our last three years of positive mood have been accompanied by significant growth in the national income"