Employee Engagement and its Relation with Key Economic Indicators

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between employee engagement and key economic indicators as: level of unemployment and economic income. In order to investigate this relationship, a survey sample of 630 questionnaires was distributed, at prefecture level, among employees in financial and insurances economic activity. The measurement of employee engagement is based on the theoretical model of UWES (Utrecht Work Engagement Scale). The data on employee engagement are produced at NUTS 2 level (North, Center, and South). The results indicate that the higher the unemployment rate, then the higher the employee engagement. In addition, a relation between share of GDP per region and the level of employee engagement in respective region is evident. The region (North) that reported the lowest income per capita, had the most employees engagement. The North reported highest level of unemployment (16.8%) and the lowest share of GDP (24%), had the highest level of employee engagement (76.4%).