Employment effect on happiness: Evidence from Punjab

Since most of life is spent at work, it becomes imperative to understand the role of employment and in particular workplace in shaping an individual's happiness. Employment not only ensures economic security but also results in happiness through income. This paper explores the impact of employment on happiness based on respondents' responses to the study. It will mainly focus on evaluating the role of work and employment in impacting happiness and empirically investigate the relationship of employment, type of work, and sector of work to subjective well-being. It was found that self-employed people are happiest as the relationship was significant. Looking at the employment sector, people working in the service sector are happier than those working in the agriculture sector. Income is always regarded as impacting happiness positively for employed people. Still, while keeping other things constant, the coefficient is significant in the Tobit model. It is evident from the results that employment is significant for happiness. Promoting initiatives that keep people occupied and motivated is advisable. Policies should be geared towards quantity and the quality of jobs to support the well-being of the people of Punjab.