The last couple of years have not been easy for those in the UX profession. With an increase in layoffs and AI disruption, uncertainty has grown about job security and even whether to leave the profession entirely.
How has this uncertainty affected the current satisfaction that UX professionals feel about their job?
What you do and who you work with impacts job satisfaction (which has been measured extensively for decades across industries).
To measure job satisfaction of UX professionals specifically, we looked to the UXPA salary survey, which has polled practitioners about their salary and job satisfaction since 2014. Participants are asked to rate their overall satisfaction with their current position on a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 being not satisfied at all and 100 being completely satisfied.
Job Satisfaction Declines (A Little)
With the UXPA survey results published in late 2024, we have a new datapoint. As shown in Figure 1, the mean satisfaction score from the 402 respondents who rated their job satisfaction was 70 (±2 with 95% confidence). This drop from the mean of 74 in 2022 is statistically significant, but it is consistent with the overall trend since 2014 (e.g., overlapping confidence intervals with 2016 and 2018).
Figure 1: Mean satisfaction by year (95% confidence intervals).
We conducted some follow-up analyses to dig into the drop in job satisfaction from 2022 to 2024.
Is Job Loss Driving Lower Satisfaction?
In 2022, no respondents out of 625 indicated they had lost their jobs; in 2024, 9 out of the 402 respondents selected “Other” for their employment status and shared that they were currently unemployed. This difference of 2.2% is small but statistically significant (Fisher p = .0002).
When we compared the job satisfaction means for these two groups (unemployed and employed), the difference was statistically significant (t(8.2 df adjusted for heterogeneity) = 2.6, p = .03). The mean for unemployed respondents was 45 compared to 70.5 for employed respondents. Note, however, that the mean for employed respondents was only half a percent higher than the grand mean, so the low scores for unemployed respondents are only part of the story.
We suspect that at least two factors in 2024 were not present in the job landscape of 2022: fear of layoffs and fear of AI. The nature of a salary survey like the one conducted by UXPA is that almost all respondents have job-related income. But even those who have jobs must still be affected by changes in their job marketplaces. In the 2022 UXPA survey, 17% of respondents reported loss of staff at their places of employment, but in 2024, that number was 35%—twice as many as in 2022. And in 2022, there was relatively little chatter about AI replacing UX jobs, but in 2024, over a quarter of respondents (28%) expressed concern that AI would cause UX job losses. In some ways, it’s surprising that the job satisfaction rating in 2024 stayed as high as it did.
UX Job Satisfaction is Comparable to Other Industries
To make any measure more meaningful, it needs to be compared to something. While there isn’t a single well-established database available for comparing UX satisfaction scores, other 100-point scales can be used to assess job satisfaction, as research has shown that single-item measures of job satisfaction highly correlate with multi-item measures. We therefore looked for other single-item measures of job satisfaction across industries. In previous years (2018 and 2022), we used Glassdoor’s job satisfaction report for the best jobs, but this was not available for 2024 or 2025. Our source for this article is the job satisfaction ratings from payscale.com.
To compare the UXPA satisfaction data to this data, the payscale.com average scores (collected using a five-point scale) were converted to a percentage using linear interpolation. For a five-point scale, this is (x − 1) / 4, expressed as a percentage where x is the average on the five-point scale. So, 4 on a five-point scale becomes 75%, which corresponds to 75% on the UXPA satisfaction scale (75 out of 100 becomes 75%). These scores are shown in Table 1 for various (mostly) tech jobs.
| Job | Job Satisfaction |
|---|---|
| UX Designer | 76% |
| Project Manager | 75% |
| UX Researcher | 74% |
| Data Analyst | 74% |
| Solutions Architect | 74% |
| Business Analyst | 74% |
| UI Developer | 71% |
| UXPA Average | 70% |
| Data Scientist | 70% |
| Mobile Engineer | 70% |
| Reliability Engineer | 69% |
| Nurse Practitioner | 69% |
Table 1: Job satisfaction scores from payscale.com (downloaded 9/2/2025, converted to % scale) and compared to the 2024 UXPA average score.
Glassdoor’s list of the top 20 jobs from 2018, in terms of highest satisfaction ranged from 3.9 to 4.3 (71% to 83%), making this a reasonable benchmark to use to establish a range of good job satisfaction scores. With a mean of 70%, this suggests the jobs within the UX profession (as measured by the 2024 UXPA survey) are not too far from the top.
Table 1 includes the payscale.com job satisfaction scores for the key UX jobs of UX designer, project manager, UX researcher, and business analyst, all of which were higher than the overall UXPA mean of 70%. We computed the UXPA 2024 job satisfaction for those jobs that were, respectively, 71% (n = 118), 73% (n = 21), 70% (n = 262), and 76% (n = 12). These payscale.com and UXPA 2024 job satisfaction scores aren’t wildly different, but the payscale.com estimates tend to be higher—closer to the 2022 UXPA mean of 74%.
Many variables might contribute to these differences (including random variation), but they may be due in part to the different times these data were collected (from April to October 2024 for the UXPA ratings, September 2025 for the payscale.com ratings). In our previous article on projections for the UX job market in 2025, we concluded, “While the net jobs added and net business outcome metrics [for 2024] are at the lowest point since 2009, the data suggests the worst might be over. It’s hard to know what exactly will happen in tech, but if history is a guide, the subsequent two-year period after the nadir of 2009 had net jobs and business prospects at their highest.” Perhaps the higher UX job scores from payscale.com are related to some recovery in the UX job market over the past year.
Drivers of Satisfaction Are Harder to Model
When we looked to understand the key drivers of salary from the 2024 UXPA Salary Survey, we were able to explain a substantial 72% of the variance (similar to years past). When applying the same multivariate regression technique to explain satisfaction (including how salary may play a role), we could only explain a much lower 8% of the variance. This isn’t surprising because the correlation (the linear relationship) between salary and satisfaction was a significant but weak .11 (p < .03).
Part of the reason could also be the restriction of range (74% of respondents rated their job satisfaction as 65 or greater), and the relationship may not be well modeled by a line (linear relationship).
Historically, we find that the variables that have had a statistically significant impact on satisfaction include country, job, salary, and the number of hours worked per week. To find these relationships, we sometimes have to look at the extremes in some variables and not just the full range, suggesting some nonlinear relationships between satisfaction and job characteristics.
Job Satisfaction Varies by Country
In the analysis of salaries, the biggest predictor of salary was where you live, both the country and, within the U.S., the region. The highest salaries are in places where it’s very expensive to live (e.g., Northern California). To see how satisfaction differs by geography, we compared satisfaction scores by the countries with the most respondents for the last five salary surveys.
Figure 2 shows that respondents from Canada reported a higher mean satisfaction score (80) in 2024 than the other countries (significantly higher than the U.S. at 71 or the UK at 59). Canada was not significantly higher than Germany (68), most likely due to the uncertainty around the German estimate, given its small sample size (n = 12). The most surprising result given historical means was the very low level of job satisfaction in the UK. Even with its small sample size (n = 19), the upper limit of its 95% confidence interval fell below the lower limit of the Canadian interval and almost below the lower limit of the U.S. interval.
Figure 2: Difference in UX job satisfaction by country for 2014, 2016, 2018, 2022, and 2024 (95% confidence intervals).
Some Variation in Job Satisfaction by Job Title
Respondents in the UXPA salary survey were asked, “Which describes your current position? (Select all that apply).” Figure 3 shows the job titles for which the sample size was greater than ten respondents. The jobs with the nominally highest satisfaction (77) were Product Manager and Product Owner, while those with the nominally lowest satisfaction (69) were Usability Practitioner and Design Operations. Because the 95% confidence intervals overlapped and all contained the overall mean of 70, these nominal differences were not statistically significant.
Figure 3: Mean satisfaction scores for a selection of job titles (all titles with n > 10, 95% confidence intervals).
Higher Income Tends to Lead to Higher Satisfaction
Money might not buy happiness, but higher incomes tend to be associated with higher job satisfaction. As shown in Figure 4, respondents who reported salaries from $100K–150K (132 respondents) and above $150K (115 respondents) reported statistically higher average satisfaction scores than those with salaries of less than $50K (38 respondents).
Figure 4: Mean satisfaction levels by reported salary (all countries in USD, 95% confidence intervals).
To control for possible country effects, we examined differences for only the U.S.. There were no differences in the means for the top three income groups. Only one U.S. participant reported a salary of less than $50K, so we can’t statistically assess the job satisfaction of that group.
Working More Pays More … but May Lead to Less Satisfaction
Respondents also reported how many hours they worked per week (Figure 5). Most (58%) reported working exactly 40 hours per week, and the bulk of respondents (71%) reported working 40 to 49 hours per week.
The overall main effect of hours worked per week was statistically significant (F(4, 394) = 2.7, p = .03), with a general pattern of falling job satisfaction as the hours increased from less than 40 hours per week (73) to 50–59 hours per week (64).
However, things changed for those with 60+ hours. The eight respondents (about 2% of the sample) who reported working more than 60 hours had an average satisfaction of 80, very different from the drop in job satisfaction for this group that we observed in 2018 and 2022. This difference, as in our previous data, is not statistically significant because the sample size for 60+ hours was meager, and there was a lot of variability in ratings of satisfaction among those eight respondents (50, 65, 75, 80, 80, 90, 99, 100).
Figure 5: Satisfaction ratings by the number of reported hours worked per week.
Additional Variables that Didn’t Predict Satisfaction
We examined several other variables based on research in the job satisfaction literature. Although some cases had some small differences, they don’t add to the predictive ability of satisfaction (meaning other variables already accounted for what they’re adding). These variables are gender, job level, company size, age, experience, U.S. region, and supervising direct reports. A few notes on some of these:
- No gender differences in satisfaction. The mean job satisfaction for males was 70.2 (n = 170) and for females was 69.9 (n = 218), a nonsignificant difference of 0.3 (p = .88).
- Job level had no significant effect on satisfaction (p = .21). Those with entry-level and mid-level nonsupervisory jobs have similar satisfaction scores (n = 120; Sat = 68). The mean satisfaction ratings for senior-level jobs (supervisory and non-supervisory) were both 70 (n = 252).
- Company size also doesn’t matter much (p = .14). While the 43 respondents at larger companies (5,001–10,000 employees) reported the highest satisfaction level (74), it wasn’t statistically different from smaller companies with 1,000 or fewer employees (n = 124; Sat = 71).
- Age didn’t have much of an impact. The youngest respondents (18–25; n = 15; Sat = 73) reported higher satisfaction scores than the oldest respondents (56+; n = 36; Sat = 70), but it wasn’t statistically different (p = .63).
- Experience also didn’t matter much. There was no significant difference across the means for the seven experience groups (p = .34). Those with the most experience (21+ years) had about the same job satisfaction (n = 54; Sat = 71) as those with the least experience (0–2 years, n = 43; Sat = 72). Across the groups, the nominally highest job satisfaction (73) was for those with 8–10 years of experience (n = 61), and the nominally lowest (64) was for those with 16–20 years of experience (n = 75).
Summary
UX professionals report generally high job satisfaction (70 out of 100). However, job satisfaction has declined slightly in 2024 compared to the last decade (and since 2022). The drop is partly explained by a small but significant increase in unemployment and by widespread fears of layoffs and AI replacing UX roles. Compared to other industries, UX satisfaction remains relatively strong. Satisfaction varies somewhat by geography and income: Canadian respondents reported the highest levels, while those earning over $100K tended to be more satisfied. Overall, while salary explains little of the variance, job security concerns and industry shifts appear to be the strongest forces shaping UX professionals’ outlook today.
