That’s one of the surprising findings from my landmark Early Years of Marriage (EYM) project, the NIH-funded study that has been following and observing hundreds of married couples for nearly a quarter century. The longest-running marriage study ever conducted, EYM set out to discover what makes marriages happy, strong, and long lasting–and what breaks them apart.

While other research has shown that job dissatisfaction can lead to unhappiness at home, this new finding, which correlates job happiness with marital happiness, is the first research to emphasize the positive spillover from work to marriage.

It makes sense that if you’re happier at work, you’re more likely to be happy at home too. When we asked the working married couples in my EYM study about their work life, we found that those who felt appreciated, challenged, and energized by their jobs were also more likely to report being very happy in their marriages. These happy employees had good workplace relationships, were more or less content with their pay, felt motivated to develop new skills, and were productive, success-oriented, high-achievers.

Sounds like someone you’d like to be married to, right?

Here are four ways to put my finding into practice so you can enjoy both a happy marriage and a happy work life.

Strategy #1: Seek support and help from your spouse.

If you’re having a problem at work, solicit advice from your spouse. Research shows that the “need for assistance” is one of the three basic needs of all people in relationships (the other two are intimacy and feeling valued). Seeking solutions to work-related problems together strengthens the marital bond and the feeling that “we’re in this together.” Moreover, because your spouse knows you so well, he or she is likely to come up with great insights and valuable feedback that you can use to improve your job situation.

Strategy #2: “Grow” in your job.

A recent large-scale study in Harvard Business Review found that the number-one factor that keeps employees happy and motivated in their job is “progress.” When workers feel they’re making headway in their jobs, or are receiving support that helps them overcome obstacles, they feel upbeat and motivated to succeed. Workers who are fulfilled and stimulated during the workday tend to be happier individuals, and much of that happiness gets transferred to their spouse at the end of the day.

Strategy #3: Practice behaviors that relieve stress.

Numerous studies have documented a link between workplace stress and poor health. The two most common workplace stressors are feeling as if you haven’t been heard or supported, and negative interpersonal work relationships. Find ways to express your needs, ask for assistance, and manage conflict at your job. Good health, lots of energy, and an upbeat attitude are sexy and attractive to your partner. You won’t have these attributes if your job causes you to gain weight, lose sleep, be chronically exhausted, and develop stress-related symptoms like bad gut and hypertension.

Strategy #4: Share your work life.

My study found that the happiest marriages were ones where partners felt their spouse regularly disclosed information about his or her life, and did not keep secrets–even details from work that might seem “boring.” The study also found that making communal collaborative concerns a priority over private psychological concerns is a determining factor in how well couples are able to blend lives and achieve happiness. Finally, when your work life becomes interwoven into your home life, it promotes a satisfying feeling of work-life balance and makes you happier overall.

The take-away? Work on boosting job satisfaction. It will help you live happily with your spouse.

Terri Orbuch PhD, known as The Love Doctor, is the project director of the landmark, NIH-funded Early Years of Marriage Project, the longest-running study of married couples ever conducted, which has been following hundreds of married couples since 1986. She is a research professor at the Institute for Social Research at University of Michigan, and a professor at Oakland University. Her new book is 5 Simple Steps to Take Your Marriage from Good to Great (Random House).

As a boss your first instinct is to rattle their cage. But what will that accomplish?

Employers fret about holding onto Gen Y workers who may be less inclined than previous generations to stick around through thick and thin.  Given the cost of recruiting young talent, employers are understandably concerned about return on investment – keeping an employee long enough for them to develop into strong contributors.

Still, loyalty isn’t part of the “deal” any more between employers and employees, so it’s no surprise that, according to a new study by Taleo, an HR software company, 41% of those who are no longer working for their first employer out of college left in less than two years. That doesn’t strike me as an epidemic – a lot of first jobs simply aren’t good fits.

Taleo teamed with Harris Interactive to conduct a survey of 2,045 adults ages 18 and older, a series of questions about their first jobs and first employers.

Three out of five respondents said that their first employer did not provide a clear path for advancement. Of course, the reality is that few employers provide a clear path to anything, much less to the corner office.

Other key findings:

• Describing how their first job made them feel, 13% said they couldn’t wait for Friday to arrive, 10% wanted to quit every day and 8% felt it was a waste of their time
• 19% of 18-34 year olds wanted to quit their first job every day, compared to 3% of those 55 years old and over

There’s no real way of telling from the data whether first jobs are worse than they used to be, or whether employers or employees are primarily to blame for the gap between expectations and experience.

How well do you remember your first job? I wasn’t thrilled and I wasn’t miserable but knew I wanted to move on before the first year was complete. There isn’t always a retention solution for an employer, but money helps a little.

Maybe the survey results will strike you differently. As for me, I can’t wait for Friday to arrive and I love what I do.

What can we do about that? First, we can realize that this is a universal problem. A recently released study of 88,612 workforce members in 18 countries by Towers Perrin finds that only 21 percent of employees are engaged in their current work. In fact, 38 percent of workers feel partly to fully disengaged.

Does this sound like the weather report for your cube? Patchy clouds of engagement, followed by chilly co-workers, and a chance of hot air from your boss.

The litmus test goes like this: If you care about the future of the company and are willing to make a discretionary effort, then it’s likely you are engaged. Translation: You’re willing to work 65 hours a week because you like your job and you like your company.

If you’re working those 65 hours just out of fear, chances are you’re partly engaged but probably not for the right reasons.

The company cares about your effort for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that an engaged workforce helps it outperform its competition. And there’s more: “half of the engaged employees had no plans to leave their company, compared with just 15 percent of the disengaged.”

“Job satisfaction or employee happiness doesn’t necessarily extend itself to the financial performance of the company,” explains one of the study’s architects, Julie Gebauer, leader of the firm’s Workforce Effectiveness consulting practice.

Gebauer says the study finds three factors that all must be in sync before a worker is properly engaged:

• Head:  I know what I need to do to make my company be successful.
• Heart: The emotional connection. You have pride in your company and you’re connected to the mission and vision.
• Hand: The action or motivational part of the relationship. Now I’m willing to put in more effort than is required to help the company succeed.

Sounds nice. But let’s assume for a moment that your engagement is called off – it just isn’t going to happen on your current job. How would you choose your next employer based upon the likelihood that they will engage you? The study offers some intriguing ideas about this:

• Employees want to work for a company that is seen as a leader
• Employees want senior leadership to demonstrate inspiration, vision and commitment
• Employees will work hard but they want a clearer picture of what’s in it for them

In a job interview, ask about the corporate culture. Do they practice social responsibility? What are the company’s programs or views regarding work/life balance? Does the company have a “no asshole rule“?

Intriguingly, the study explores engagement (and what drives it) by country and age groups. Some workers value organizations that stress social responsibility, while others prefer employers that help them achieve a work/life balance. Later this year, Towers plans to release industry cuts showing which fields have high or low engagement levels.

Is your engagement on or off?

Smart HR managers will be sure to highlight the findings of a recent study by Dr. Michael Dickmann in their next presentation on expat ROI. (Companies spend an average of $311,000 a year on each expatriate.)

An academic authority on expatriate management, Dickmann runs the Centre for Research into the Management of Expatriation (CReME) at the Cranfield School of Business in England.

His study, conducted in conjunction with PricewaterhouseCoopers, found that productivity jumps while the employee is on assignment, stabilizes when he or she returns and then increases again.

But the key to ensuring ROI during and after assignment, the study finds, is articulating specific goals and purpose. Though this may seem obvious, the study – “Measuring the Value of International Assignments” – found that many fail to do so.

As well, the study notes that evaluating expatriates “tends to be handled by the host country only, despite suggested best practice and most organizations’ stated goal of involving both the home and host locations.”

Perhaps the study’s most compelling result is that 15 percent of assignees leave their organization within a year of repatriation. “Companies are at risk of losing their expatriate staff because they fail to devise a career path for them when they return from overseas,” said Dickmann in a newsletter published by the school.

When coming off international assignment, new repats can get lost in the corporate shuffle. Though expats may be well managed while on assignment, they are likely to experience what the report describes as “career wobble.”

This is due to a couple of factors. The study found a correlation between losing personnel and failing to articulate career goals. There is also a tendency for both line and HR managers to think that once the expat has returned home, they’ll be fine. Not so.

“Much more time and effort must be put into preparing for an employee’s return – they need security, a meaningful role on their return and to see a clear path for their future career development with the organization,” Dickmann says.  

Without such a path, an employee may give the return on investment to another organization.

Birth order might sound a bit farfetched for a science or careers topic, like astrology, biorhythms or a fad pizza diet, but it’s not. A Norwegian Armed Forces Medical Services study published in Science shows that firstborns of either sex are, on average, 2.3 IQ points smarter than their younger sibs.

Those several IQ points make an enormous difference when it comes to getting into college and ultimately advancing in life, contends Dr. Frank Sulloway, author of Born to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics and Creative Lives. Sulloway, who commented on the study in the New York Times and in this month’s Science (fees, registration required), says, “There’s some evidence to suggest that first and later-borns go into different kinds of careers and have associated different motivations.”

As everyone knows, throughout history, the eldest child (okay, the eldest boy) has inherited property or the family business and typically received ample resources to get ahead in life. And firstborns have profited from the attention: they are “over-represented” statistically as Presidents, leaders and Nobel Prize Winners.

By contrast, resource-constrained younger sibs have been more likely to reject the family plan, affecting their personality and grade point average and – most importantly – this competition has spurred their ability to innovate and be creative. So while in general eldest sibs lead the world, younger sibs are the rebellious ones that actually change it as they reject the status quo.

I asked Sulloway, who studies family dynamics among other subjects at UC-Berkeley (he’s also one of the world’s leading experts on Darwin), if these several IQ points matter so much, why don’t employers screen new hires on the basis of sib order (even if they’re legally not allowed to ask)? “If people use birth order in job interviews they’re using a stereotype rather than good information and they might pick someone on false inference,” he says. “If someone came to me to work as a research assistant I wouldn’t ask them about their birth order. If they told me I wouldn’t infer anything major about it.”

And intelligence is not the only indicator of success. Creativity and conceptual ability are also important indicators of future success.

Recruiters are not unaware of this firstborn advantage. “I’m a big believer in it but legally you can’t ask where they fall in birth order – that’s the problem,” says an executive recruiter friend of mine. She points out that chief executives tend to be taller than average too – the Abe Lincoln effect.

No one has studied where bloggers or journalists fall in the sib order, but I think we can draw our own conclusions. Did you know that couples most often choose a spouse that matches their sib order? I read this in Sulloways’s superb book, Born to Rebel, a decade ago. What would be extremely weird is if hiring managers unconsciously hire people who match their sib order. Maybe we can get a grant to launch a study?

Most companies forget that last point or possibly they don’t know where to start.

Deutsche Bank delivered on all of the above when it created several Web-based videos of employees talking about why they work there.

And having checked it out, I can see why Deutsche Bank was proclaimed the best corporate careers site by a group of students, recent graduates and Swedish researchers.

Potentialpark Communications, a Swedish-based research and consulting firm, says that it surveyed 1,800 U.S. students and recent graduates in an effort to identify the leading corporate careers sites. The sites were evaluated for six criteria: Usability, Employer Branding, Talent Relationship Building, Application Management, Recruitment Process, and Assessment & Individual Feedback. The complete list of winners is here.

One of the researchers told me that the use of corporate videos is on the rise. “Already about one third of the rated companies uses videos, for example to present possible future colleagues, a walk through the office or the day-to-day work,” says Potentialpark’s Magdalena Knott. “The use of blogs, pod casts and web casts has not advanced too far until now, but the importance is rising.”

Here’s the Top 10 U.S. Corporate Career Websites

1. Deutsche Bank
2. Microsoft
3. BCG (Boston Consulting Group)
4. Merrill Lynch
5. Accenture
6. Charles Schwab
7. UBS
8. Booz Allen Hamilton
9. Intel
10. Bertelsmann

Source: Potentialpark Communications

Interestingly, in the European version of this annual study, Deutsche Bank, a German company, placed in seventh. Go figure. The European winner was Deutsche Post World Net, a logistics company.

Here’s the Top 10 European Corporate Career Websites

1. DPWN
2. ABB
3. IBM
4. Accenture
5. PwC
6. Vodafone
7. Deutsche Bank
8. BCG
9. UBS
10. Shell

Source: Potentialpark Communications

We asked Potentialpark to break down for us the winners in several vertical industries:

•         Investment Banking, Deutsche Bank
•         Consumer Goods, Procter & Gamble
•         High Tech, Intel
•         Audit & Accounting, Deloitte

• The wealthiest 1 percent sees their income dramatically outpace others;
• Men in their 30s today earn less than their fathers did in the 1970s;
• A parents’ economic success is one of the biggest pointers to their children’s future economic success.

Those are key findings of a study that evaluates economic mobility, or the ability of a person to move up or down the economic ladder within a lifetime or from one generation to the next.

“To be sure, the apple can fall far from the tree … [but] the tree dominates the picture,” the study says. “In modern America, upward mobility is increasingly a family enterprise.”

Though the conclusions are grim, they don’t come as a great shock. What we found surprising was the source of the report: a consortium of conservative think tanks including The Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute.

The report, “Economic Mobility: Is the American Dream Alive and Well?” argues that a successful democracy needs upward mobility.

But the data demonstrates that this is not happening. In 1974, men in their 30s earned $40,000 a year (inflation-adjusted dollars) but the same group in 2004 saw their real wages decline 12 percent to $35,000 a year.  ”Between 1978 and 2005, CEO pay increased from 35 times to nearly 262 times the average worker’s pay,” the study finds.

And despite dramatic increases in productivity, particularly since 2000, wages have remained relatively stagnant. Technology has certainly made it easier to be more productive at work but previous generations were rewarded with a raise.

In the past, decade Americans experienced a jobless recovery right after dot-com bust and 9/11. Now we have much higher employment but static wages across much of the non-executive part of the workforce.

This is compounded by the assertion that, among their counterparts in the industrial world, Americans are the least likely to advance based on their own merits.

Why do you think nations such as Denmark, Germany and Sweden have greater economic mobility? With unemployment rising rapidly do these statistics matter to you?

In a tight labor market it’s not surprising to see workers relocate for the right opportunity. In a recent study Manpower reports that 78 percent of the workers it interviewed worldwide said they would be willing to relocate for a job. Nearly 37 percent said they would leave their home country. Of those willing to move, two in five said they would do so permanently.

But what happens to the countries and cities these migrating workers leave behind? Does brain drain cause economic pain? Apparently, yes, many employers around the globe are feeling that the global talent market is working against them, at least according to a new study.

Internationally, 31 percent of employers express concern about the global migration of talent, according to a Manpower study of 28,000 employers in 27 countries. The same study reports that only 15 percent of employers feel that government and business are “doing enough” to stem the flow of talent to other countries.

Controlling the flow of talent around the world doesn’t sound like a progressive idea, but it is universally practiced by governments around the world – no matter what type of political system is in force. In theory, without some labor controls in place, wage inflation and deflation would run rampant. And there would be critical shortages of skilled professions in some countries.

According to the Manpower study, “employers in Peru (82%), Argentina (66%), South Africa (65%), Taiwan (64%) India (57%), and New Zealand (52%) express the most concern about the impact of ‘brain drain’ on their labor markets resulting from talent leaving their country to work in another country. On the other hand, employers in China (1%), Ireland (7%), Japan (12%) and Switzerland (12%) are least concerned about the issue.”

I have been writing about global careers for several years now I have never encountered data suggesting that large-scale, cross-border migrations of skilled workers are taking place in numbers that could undermine a hiring base for employers. All indications are that the percentage of college-educated workers expatriating themselves from “first world” countries to explore ‘foreign” options is well under five percent.

Among workers considering foreign opportunities, the U.S., China, UK and Spain are the preferred destinations. What would prompt these moves?

• Increased pay was cited by 82% of respondents.
• Surprisingly, nearly half the respondents said they would move to learn a new language.
• The higher the level of educational attainment, the greater the willingness to move. And, undoubtedly, the greater the appeal of the worker to a potential employer in another country.

Meanwhile, for adventurous workers in a tight economy it’s easier to stay ahead of inflation by finding a new job rather than a raise or promotion. Undoubtedly, there will continue to be churn in job markets, with increasing political scrutiny paid to the ebb and flow of global talent. Watch for it to become a significant issue in 2008 races with virtually no one ready to stand up for the people who simply want the freedom to move to support themselves or their family.

Top 10 Jobs Filled with Foreign Talent

The top 10 jobs that employers are filling with foreign talent across the 27 countries and territories surveyed by Manpower:

1. Laborers
2. Engineers
3. Production Operators
4. Technicians
5. IT Staff
6. Sales Representatives
7. Administrative Assistants / PAs
8. Customer Service Representatives
9. Senior Executives / Board Members
10. Accounting & Finance Staff

Source: Manpower Borderless Workforce Study of 28,000 employers in 27 countries, June 2008

Globally, that’s down by 10% in a year, clear evidence that there’s more supply in the talent markets. But in the US of A the situation is more worrisome: a year ago 62% of employers said they were having difficulty filling jobs and this year only 28% shared the same complaint.

2008 Global Hot Jobs

1. Skilled Manual Trades
2. Sales Representatives
3. Technicians
4. Engineers
5. Management/Executives
6. Laborers
7. Administrative Assistants / PAs
8. Drivers
9. Accounting & Finance staff
10. IT Staff
Manpower, 2008 Talent Shortage Survey

If your career hits a dead-end, you might want to consider moving to Romania. Nearly three in four employers there complain that they can’t find talent to fill open jobs. Interestingly, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore have this same problem, perhaps because those are expensive places to live.

If you’re seeking work in India, there are a lot of vacancies but there appears to be quite a few applicants as well. Just 12% of employers surveyed there complain about a lack of available talent. Only 15% of employers in China report experiencing a talent shortage.

If you’re seriously considering a global career, this is a valuable report because it highlights talent shortages by industry and country. Of course, just because they need sales people in New Zealand doesn’t mean you could close a deal there.

Here’s the Manpower list of Hot Jobs in the United States:

1. Engineers
2. Machinists/Machine Operators
3. Skilled Manual Trades (primarily welders or carpenters/joiners)
4. Technicians
5. Sales Representatives
6. Accounting & Finance Staff
7. Mechanics
8. Laborers
9. IT Staff
10. Production Operators
Manpower, 2008 Talent Shortage Survey

A year ago we reported that the global labor crunch was serious and ran the risk of constraining growth in the world’s economy. This year, the big news is that France has a shortage of skilled chefs. Next year, we could be talking about the job boom in Romania. It’s all over the map.

Forbes reports that apart from manufacturing jobs, in decline because of productivity gains and offshoring, technology is undermining classic office jobs such as filing and data entry.  

The worst jobs projected through 2014?

• Computer programmers – expected to grow at only 2 percent. I’m not sure that I buy this because what it doesn’t account for is innovation in the computer field. In my lifetime that’s been a pretty safe bet.  
• Journalists are supposedly an endangered species – our numbers are expected to swell by only 5 percent in this period. Forbes reports that the few jobs that are created will be in small markets. Perhaps this is true, but if the journalism market is growing at all I consider that a minor cause for celebration.
• Travel agents – their numbers may decrease by 6 percent. Frankly, I thought that industry had already packed its bags for Ft. Lauderdale, but given the number of retiring baby boomers, many of whom presumably will need help with trip-planning, maybe these projections are pessimistic.
• Federal employees might be in the worst shape of all, reports Forbes. “Washington employs nearly 2 million people, not including the military, making it the country’s largest employer,” states Forbes. “By 2014, federal government jobs–excluding the Postal Service– will only have increased by about 1.6% above 2004 levels due to the transfer of some jobs to state and local governments and the increased use of private contracting companies.”

Meanwhile, I’m sure that the highly regarded Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Handbook was written prior to the recent dip in the real estate market. There are untold numbers of realtors and mortgage brokers currently reconsidering their career options. When the real estate market heats up again – as it surely will long before 2014 – the net number of realtors will swell above current levels.

There’s a downside to looking ahead seven years to see which careers will be hot or cold: the window of opportunities opens and closes faster than we realize.