U.S. workers: unhappy on the Job, but staying put.

• Position: WORKPLACE TRENDS

Employee engagement is continuing to trend downward, as a majority of disgruntled employees say they feel disengaged at work but are making little effort to find a new job.

Modern Survey, a human capital measurement and consulting company based in Minneapolis, found that only 21 percent of workers surveyed in its recent study of employment trends reported that they looking for new jobs, despite dissatisfaction with their current one.

The survey raised some startling findings. Among them: About 70 percent of employees said they were either fully disengaged or under-engaged at their job, the highest percentage since the company started tracking numbers in 2007--before the advent of the great recession--a figure that was consistent across job levels, pay scales and company size.

On the flip side, the number of fully engaged employees has dropped to a survey low of just 8 percent, compared to a year earlier when 15 percent said they were fully engaged. This most recent data, the survey team said, demonstrates a significant deterioration in the number of workers committed to their work and to their organization.

Bruce Campbell, Modern Survey's senior consultant, said that business...