A new Cabinet Office investigation has found that out of hundreds of professions Clergy experience the most job satisfaction.
Farmers, fitness instructors and primary school teachers were also amongst the happiest professions, but publicans topped the list of unhappiest jobs.
The Cabinet Office is working on an online calculator that will allow those considering different career options to compare average salaries and life satisfaction.
Satisfaction
According to figures, clergy earn on average £20,568, but topped the Cabinet Office job satisfaction index with a high score of 8.291.
Chief Executives and senior officials who earn on average £117,700, five times more than the average clergy, came in second with 7.957.
In fourth place were company secretaries earning £18,176, indicating that high-paying jobs do not guarantee happiness.
Ministry
The information has been used as part of a new report, Wellbeing and Policy, published by independent thinktank, Legatum Institute.
The report examines the importance of wellbeing and its contribution to national prosperity.
“A lot of careers advisers will tell you, ‘If you become a doctor you will earn this much, as a teacher you’ll earn this much. But perhaps people should also know what different careers can do in terms of their life satisfaction”, said the director of communications at the Legatum Institute, Shazia Ejaz.
Reverend Mark Ackford, of Aylesbury Parish, said: “The job satisfaction of working in a parish is a parish’s ministry – working together with the fellow members of your church family to build the Kingdom of God.”
Happier
Reverend Peter Ould, a Church of England Vicar, commenting on the news, said the high level of satisfaction for clergy has a lot to do with the reason people become clergy in the first place.
“It’s a question of vocation. If you end up doing what you feel that you are called to do, then you will be happier in general,” he said.
“If you think that what you are called to do is to work for God, that’s something that’s absolutely brilliant, and how could anyone be happier.”