Canada’s unemployment rate fell to 7.2% in July, the lowest it’s been since December 2008. It’s been recovering, on and off, since peaking at 8.7% this time last year. This is good news, of course. But there is more to the jobs story facing Canadians. Underemployment continues to hurt thousands of families. And according to the What’s Working survey, released a couple of weeks back by consulting firm Mercer, 36% of Canadians are so dissatisfied with their job that they’re “seriously considering leaving their organization.”

Madeline Avedon, a principal at the firm, shared this with me by email: “Pay freezes, smaller merit increases and cuts in training, promotions and jobs have certainly lent to this feeling of frustration.”

This is hardly shocking. In a normal economy, people who have a beef with their employer – justified or not – look for work elsewhere. But who feels confident enough to make that call these days? At a time when most any job is a good job, more of us are grinning and bearing.

Still, the Mercer numbers are startling:

• In addition to the 36% thinking about a move, another 22% are “ambivalent about whether to stay or go,” reads the report. “Canadian employees are less committed to their employers and less satisfied with many aspects of the work experience compared to the previous survey, and they have one of the highest levels of disengagement among the countries surveyed.”
• Only 68% said “my work gives me a feeling of personal accomplishment.” That’s down from 80% who said the same when the survey was last conducted, in 2006.
• Three in five (60%) said “I feel a strong sense of commitment to my organization.” That’s down from 67% last time.
• Payday doesn’t help. Only about half (53%) of Canadians are “satisfied with their base pay,” according to the report. There is a bit of good news here: 39% receive a bonus of some kind. That’s up from 29% who said the same in 2006.

What do we take from all this? A couple of things, I think.

First, this represents a level of pent-up frustration with current employment arrangements that’s got to give eventually. If you’re out of work, this is a bit of good news.

Second, there’s reason for some pessimism about the well-advertised war for talent. Remember that? It promised a seller’s market for talented people who would benefit from Canada’s aging workforce. Employers would need Canadian professionals more than ever, and they’d be prepared to get creative. We don’t appear to be seeing that in compensation strategy, unfortunately. “Across the board, 31% believe their organization is not doing enough to prepare them for retirement,” wrote Avedon in her email to me. And on the health benefits side, “there has been a significant drop in employees’ perception of the competitiveness of their plans.” A little more than half (53%) said “their benefits are as good as or better than those offered by other organizations in their industry.” That’s down from 65% in 2006.

The war for talent will come back, but only when employers are in a position to spend more on their people. To the extent that this is indicative of a sustained recovery, we don’t appear to be there yet.