Washington ? Like a majority of Americans, nurse Peggy Branan feels that her job is satisfying and that she is paid fairly. Many workers express concern about job stress, retirement benefits and health care, according to an Associated Press poll, but Branan is not one of them.

“I feel blessed to be able to get paid for what I enjoy doing,” said Branan, a nurse for 21 years. “I’m very active in my church. My role as a nurse is a way to fulfill my role as a Catholic.”

The poll on the public’s attitudes about work found that most workers in the United States were at least fairly satisfied with their jobs. A sizable number say they were unhappy with the stress level, health care and retirement benefits of their jobs.

Seven in 10 surveyed said they were paid fairly. Men were more likely than women to feel this way.

For Branan, a 44-year-old nurse from the New Orleans area, work is an important part of who she is. That same kind of feeling was shared by six in 10 workers.

As people celebrate Labor Day this weekend, about half of the workers surveyed say they find their job very satisfying and four in 10 rated it somewhat satisfying, according to the poll conducted for the AP by Ipsos-Public Affairs.

“The level of the public’s satisfaction with work is high and has been quite stable for the last 30 years,” said Tom Smith, director of the General Social Survey at the National Opinion Research Center in Chicago.

One of the more frequent complaints is the growing amount of stress at work. In the poll, 34 percent said they were dissatisfied with the amount of stress. Other leading complaints included opportunities for advancement as well as health and retirement benefits.

Adults age 18 to 29 were most likely to say their job was something they mainly do to earn money.

For 24-year-old Annie Blaase, of Chicago, her full-time job selling health care software is relatively enjoyable. Still, her main love is freelance writing, which is part time.

“The sales I do to pay the rent and pay bills,” Blaase said. “But the writing, that’s my catharsis. It has more to do with who I am as a person.”

People over 30 were more likely to say they were very satisfied with their jobs.

“I’ve got a lot of responsibility — taking care of the highways,” said Larry Turner, a 55-year-old supervisor of highway work in West Virginia.

Those most likely to say they were very satisfied were white, married, college-educated, homeowners and Republicans.

The poll found that 42 percent said their jobs were interesting nearly all of the time. One-half of those surveyed said their job was interesting most of the time, but had dull stretches.