Librarians are about average in terms of happiness.

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, librarians rate their career happiness 3.3 out of 5 stars which puts them in the top 46% of careers.

To put this into perspective, we compared how happy librarians 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
Clergy member
3.6
$36k
Graduate teaching assistant
3.4
$20k
Art teacher
3.4
$45k
Library assistant
3.3
$10k
Librarian
3.3
$55k
Tailor
3.2
$42k
Archivist
3.2
$41k
Funeral director
3.2
$31k
Distance learning coordinator
3.2
$79k

So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:

  • Salary: Are librarians happy with their salary?
  • Meaning: Do librarians find their jobs meaningful?
  • Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as librarians?
  • Work environment: How enjoyable are librarian’s work environments?
  • Skills utilization: Are librarians making the best use of their abilities?

Are librarians happy with their salary?

Librarians rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.0/5. Librarians tend to be quite unhappy with their salary, with very few reporting satisfaction with their pay.

We asked librarians how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:

3.0 out of 5 stars

1033 librarians

5 Star
11%

11% of librarians rated their compensation 5 stars

4 Star
23%

23% of librarians rated their compensation 4 stars

3 Star
32%

32% of librarians rated their compensation 3 stars

2 Star
19%

19% of librarians rated their compensation 2 stars

1 Star
15%

15% of librarians rated their compensation 1 stars

Do librarians find their jobs meaningful?

On average, librarians rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.0/5. While most librarians aren’t very fulfilled by their work, some people may still manage to find meaning in it.

We asked librarians how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:

3.0 out of 5 stars

1035 librarians

5 Star
14%

14% of librarians rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars

4 Star
21%

21% of librarians rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars

3 Star
28%

28% of librarians rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars

2 Star
22%

22% of librarians rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars

1 Star
16%

16% of librarians rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars

How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as librarians?

Librarians rated their personality fit with their work an average of 4.0/5. The majority of librarians find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.

We asked librarians how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:

4.0 out of 5 stars

1112 librarians

5 Star
35%

35% of librarians rated their career fit 5 stars

4 Star
38%

38% of librarians rated their career fit 4 stars

3 Star
17%

17% of librarians rated their career fit 3 stars

2 Star
6%

6% of librarians rated their career fit 2 stars

1 Star
3%

3% of librarians rated their career fit 1 stars

How enjoyable is a librarian’s work environment?

As a whole, librarians rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.8/5. A solid majority of librarians enjoy their work environment, probably contributing to overall higher satisfaction with working as a librarian.

We asked librarians how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:

3.8 out of 5 stars

1109 librarians

5 Star
30%

30% of librarians rated their work environment 5 stars

4 Star
36%

36% of librarians rated their work environment 4 stars

3 Star
20%

20% of librarians rated their work environment 3 stars

2 Star
10%

10% of librarians rated their work environment 2 stars

1 Star
5%

5% of librarians rated their work environment 1 stars

Are librarians making the best use of their abilities?

Former librarians on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.0/5. Librarians tend to feel that they don’t manage to use their abilities to their fullest, when compared to other careers.

We asked librarians how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:

3.0 out of 5 stars

1109 librarians

5 Star
14%

14% of librarians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars

4 Star
23%

23% of librarians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars

3 Star
25%

25% of librarians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars

2 Star
25%

25% of librarians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars

1 Star
13%

13% of librarians rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars