Irish workers are the fourth happiest in the world as Ireland tops the EU's rankings when it comes to job satisfaction.

The new stats come from recruitment agency Indeed, who also ranked Dublin at the top of the European job happiness ladder, ahead of the likes of London, Rome and Stockholm.

And the happiest people in the country? Builders, carpenters, childcare assistants and secretaries.

Colombia placed first globally, with the slightly unlikely leaders table ranking Mexico, Russia and Ireland just below the South American nation. Spain was the only other EU country in the Top 10, in ninth place.

The unhappiest workers in the world are to be found in Chinese.

The survey of Indeed users across 35 countries looked at five different aspects of job happiness: work-life balance, quality of management, office culture, job security and advancement, benefits and compensation.

Indeed economist Mariano Mamertino said:

"Pay levels were consistently the lowest-ranked factor in measuring employee satisfaction of people in a job.

"That doesn’t mean pay is not an important recruitment tool, but rather that once people are in a job the things that keep them happy and motivated move to less tangible issues like career progression, their relationships with their boss and, most importantly, the balance they can strike between work and their personal life".

The survey also shows a trend for nations with older workforces to be more disgruntled.

Colombia has a median age of 28 and had the most positive worker outlook. In contrast, Japan (median age of 45) only placed 26th and Germany (median age of 46) was 27th. Ireland's median work age is 36 years.

Naturally, the findings are solely based on Indeed's recruitment. In another employment survey published today, Morgan McKinley found that the majority of Irish professionals (73%) work longer than their contracted hours, with about one-in-five working a full extra three months a year.