Everyone unmotivated?: Work motivation and employer loyalty in Germany

This requires people who are engaged and committed to their profession. However, some recently published surveys (Gallup, 2025a; EY, 2025) give the impression that a large proportion of employees work without enthusiasm. This study uses four indicators to analyse the work motivation and employer loyalty of employees in Germany. The indicators show no worrying anomalies or trends that would suggest a lack of work motivation among employees – on the contrary. All in all, most people enjoy their work, feel engaged and have a high level of commitment to their employer.

• Job satisfaction – high job satisfaction over time: around 48 per cent had a high level of job satisfaction in 2022 and 49 per cent a medium level. The long-term perspective based on the SOEP since the 1990s shows that the differences in job satisfaction between the years are rather small. A negative trend is not discernible, but at the current edge of the measurement in 2022, the proportion of highly satisfied employees has fallen by 4 percentage points compared to the previous year. The lowest level of job satisfaction based on the SOEP was measured during the financial and economic crisis in 2009 –- albeit still with around 45 per cent of highly satisfied employees.
• Engagement – most employees feel engaged at work: According to their own statements, most employees are engaged and feel enthusiasm and energy at work. More than one in two were mostly or always enthusiastic about their work in 2024. For just as many, work flew by on most days. Around 90 per cent are convinced that they do a good job most of the time.
• Fluctuation – less fluctuation than before the covid-19-pandemic. The fluctuation coefficient of the Federal Employment Agency for 2023 is lower than in the previous year and lower than before the pandemic. This is due to the reluctance of companies in hiring and at the same time the reluctance of employees to change jobs in economically uncertain times.
• Length of employment – has fallen slightly in the last ten years. Every second employment relationship lasts less than one year. A comparison of terminated employment relationships subject to social insurance contributions in 2019 and 2023 shows that this proportion is currently 2.5 percentage points lower than before the pandemic. However, a comparison of the average length of service since the 1990s shows a slight downward trend. On average, however, employees over 50 years of age had still been with the same employer for 17 years in 2022, employees between 31 and 50 years of age for nine years and employees under 30 years of age for around three years.