A rise in job satisfaction suggests employee are responding to the recession with a positive attitude.

Onrec reports a survey of 3,000 employees by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) found the proportion of people satisfied with their job has increased from 2006.

The research from 3,000 employees It also found the proportion of people who say their job makes them feel cheerful most or all of the time has also gone up.

It’s not all good news. Three quarters of respondents claim their organisation has been affected by the recession with half citing increased work-related stress and 38 percent seeing a rise in office politics. Six in 10 are worried about the future.

Ben Willmott, Senior Public Policy Adviser and co-author of the survey, CIPD, said: "Job satisfaction may have edged up – but this could be the employee opinion survey equivalent of a fixed grin. Employees grateful to have a job at all are less likely to grumble, and more likely to see scorched earth rather than greener grass on the other side of the fence.

"Beneath this positive glow, however, our survey highlights the impact the recession is having on the workplace. Without action to tackle some of the stresses and strains that are clear in our survey, employers could find employee health and wellbeing deteriorating, and employee engagement tailing off at precisely the time they need all hands to the pump to survive the recession and thrive in the recovery."

The research shows more than a third of employees worry about being made redundant as a result of the recession and most believe finding a new job would be difficult. Almost four in ten (36 percent) employees report that their organisation has made redundancies or is planning to make job cuts and just under a fifth say their employer has cut back on training (17 percent), or frozen pay (18 percent).