Australians disengaged at work: report Australians are suffering from a serious case of workplace malaise, with a report finding more than 70 per cent are either ambivalent about or completely disengaged with their jobs. The Gallup study of employee engagement, released on Wednesday, found that only 24 per cent of Australians are engaged with their job compared to 60 per cent who were not engaged and another 16 per cent who were actively disengaged. The malaise is costing the economy around $54.8 billion a year, the report states. "Actively disengaged workers account for more quality defects and safety incidents and have higher absenteeism and lower retention rates than other employees," a Gallup senior consultant Robyn Reilly says. The jobs in which Australians reported the highest levels of happiness and engagement - at 40 per cent - were those which traditionally don't require high levels of education, such as farming and fishing. On the other end of the spectrum are transportation workers with only nine per cent saying they are engaged and 23 per cent saying they are actively disinterested - meaning they are not only unhappy, but likely to act out that unhappiness. Only 19 per cent of managers and executives displayed a high interest in their job. This was a particularly worrying sign for businesses and organisations, the report said, as managers tend to play the most significant role in influencing engagement among workers who report to them. Since the global recession in 2007, the report said unemployment and underemployment have been elevated worldwide. A possible consequence of this is that people are struggling to find jobs that align with their education, making them feel they are not living up to their potential.