Job satisfaction among staff in the voluntary sector has fallen in the second quarter of 2011, but remains ahead of comparative figures in the public and private sectors.

The quarterly Employee Outlook series, which is conducted by YouGov on behalf of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, calculates employee satisfaction by subtracting those that are dissatisfied from those that are satisfied.

On this basis, the voluntary sector scored +39 for the second quarter of 2011, down from +44 previously. Satisfaction in the private sector was slightly up on the previous quarter at +34, while in the public sector rested at +30, down from +38.

A more complex “engagement” score, taking in workload, commitment to the organisation’s purpose and confidence in senior managers, saw the voluntary sector far ahead of the other sectors on +33, compared to +13 in the private sector and -12 in the public sector.

The research surveyed 2,013 employees towards the end of June.