UNHAPPY workers are costing businesses in Southampton an estimated £3m a day, a new survey has revealed.

More than a third of employees in the city are spending increasing amounts of time daydreaming, chatting with friends online, and surfing the internet for other jobs.

Poor salaries, a lack of perks and being stuck behind a desk without talking to people are the highest complaints for 33 per cent of workers in the city.

The research from learndirect Careers Advice, also shows that employee unhappiness is two per cent higher in Southampton than the national average of 31 per cent.

Employees including plumbers, fitness instructors and accountants were questioned in the survey, and when asked to rate the factors that made them unhappy, 12 per cent stated that being in a dead end' job was the biggest reason.

Some 38 per cent said they waste an average of 21 minutes a day doing things other than work - including 19 per cent who chat to friends, 22 per cent who daydream, 14 per cent who surf the iInternet and ten per cent who spend hours every day looking for another job.

Unhappiness also causes 19 per cent of the city's residents to lose sleep, and two per cent of workers claim it even affects their sex life.

The research questioned 1,001 working adults and calculated the £3m loss to businesses in Southampton from the total amount of wasted time of the employed population on an average wage.

Gareth Dent from learndirect Careers Advice said: "This research uncovers a significant number of people who want to change their career but don't know where to start and with nearly one in twenty people admitting that their dissatisfaction has got worse in the last year, it's a worrying trend."

Penny Glazzard, marketing manager of recruitment firm Hill McGlynn & Associates, who were named the top business in Southampton in the Sunday Times Top 100 Best Companies to work for this year, said the figures didn't match the 200 local employees at the firm.

She said: "Factors like high property prices also add to people's concerns if they feel they are going to be stuck in the same job they are in until they retire, and they will look elsewhere for something better."

Southampton's level of unsatisfied workers is beaten by London where 36 per cent said they were unhappy while the happiest area of the UK was the North West where only 20 per cent said they didn't enjoy their work.