It was the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes who described the life of mankind when in his natural state as “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short,” and it’s an apt description of the mood of many American workers as we approach Labor Day 2009.

Here’s some research that bears this out: It’s Adecco Group North America’s latest American Workplace Insights Survey that was conducted for Adecco by Harris Interactive. It shows that as Labor Day rolls around, a majority of workers are dissatisfied with their employers, particularly in these three areas—compensation, career growth and retention efforts.

The numbers break down like this:

• Two-thirds (66 percent) of American workers are not currently satisfied with their compensation.

• Additionally, 78 percent are not satisfied with their company’s overall retention efforts, while 76 percent are not satisfied about future career growth opportunities at their company.

• Working relationships are also strained, with almost half (48 percent) of workers saying that they are not satisfied with the relationship they have with their boss and 59 percent saying they are not satisfied with the level of support they receive from their colleagues.

• Workers are also critical of their organization’s brain trust, with 77 percent saying that they are not satisfied with the strategy and vision of their company and its leadership.

• In addition, some 68 percent of workers say they aren’t satisfied with their company’s contribution to their retirement plans.

“What workers are telling us,” says Bernadette Kenny, chief career officer at Adecco Group North America, “is that even during a recession, just having a job does not equate to job satisfaction. Employers need to be conscious of the concerns their staff is managing through on a daily basis and proactively come up with the appropriate solutions to improve retention and reduce the current and future high cost of turnover.”

I think Bernadette Kenny is on to something. Yes, everyone who has managed to avoid becoming another unemployment statistic should be happy that they’re still working, but that’s not exactly a rallying cry that’s going to get your workforce fired up and more engaged. Smart managers, as Kenny correctly points out, need to be actively plugged in to what their staffs are going through and looking for solutions to help them get through it.

This won’t be easy. There’s a lot of terribly bad “expert” advice out there about how to help workers get through this economic downturn, and if you look at it carefully, you’ll see that these so-called experts don’t really have a clue.

The Adecco survey has a few suggestions for how managers can help to reward and retain workers even when dollars are tight, and for the most part, I think the suggestions are useful.

However, I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: Businesses everywhere need to actively engage and help workers get past the depression and bad feelings that so many have about their work and the organizations they work for. In other words, leaders need to step forward and help their workforce get their mojo back.

This latest research by Adecco is just another in a long line of surveys that show how workers are feeling. With a possible economic recovery on the horizon, it is clearly time for America’s business leaders to step up and start helping America’s workforce out of its economic funk.

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