The boss may be smiling, but a new survey finds less than half of execs are satisfied with their jobs.

If you feel stuck in a job you don’t like, maybe you can take comfort in the fact that the big boss may well be in the same boat.

A new global survey of business executives finds that less than half like their jobs, although most don’t plan on leaving.

The Path Forward, a survey of 3,900 business executives from around the world conducted by consulting firm Accenture, found that only 42 percent said they were satisfied with their jobs. That’s down slightly from 2010.

Despite such widespread unhappiness, only 24 percent the respondents said they were looking for a new job outside their company, while 8 percent said they planned to start their own business. The rest were either staying put or planning to look for another position in the same company.

The big bosses have the same gripes many people lower on the career ladder do. The most common complaint was that they felt underpaid. Many also said the hours are too long, the workload is too heavy and they see no opportunity for growth or advancement.

The Accenture survey also found that more than four in 10 said the current economic malaise appears to have slowed their careers. That’s about the same percentage of respondents who said parenthood was having an impact on their career slowing down.

The people in the corner offices appear to be juggling the professional and the personal just like the people who they manage. About seven in 10 said they have work/life balance most or all of the time, but four in 10 admitted career demands have a negative impact on family life.

The survey took place in December.

On the lower rungs of the career ladder, many workers have reported in the past few years that they feel overworked, underpaid – and relieved just to have a job.

That’s not necessarily surprising, given the way things have gone the last few years. The unemployment rate in the United States has been improving, but still remains unusually high. With companies hesitant to hire, many workers have been asked to put in more hours or take on more responsibilities.

That’s left many workers feeling disgruntled.

A survey in August found that a whopping eight in 10 employees who left their job this year would not recommend their former employer, a significant increase from just a few years earlier.

The number of women looking to attend business school hit a record high last year, but that doesn’t mean they’ll find an equitable workplace when they get out.

Women last year accounted for 41 percent of the 258,192 people taking the Graduate Management Admission Test, or GMAT, which is a requirement for most MBA programs. That represents the sixth consecutive year of growth in women taking the test, the Graduate Management Admissions Council said this week. The number of men taking the exam fell for a third year in a row to 151,392.

In the United States, 39 percent of test takers were women, but in east Asia, women led the way. In China 64 percent of test takers were women. Overall about 117,000 test takers were Americans, compared with about 58,000 who were from east and southwast Asia.

In the United States “we’re not seeing the women in business schools that would be expected,” given that women now make up half the U.S. workforce, said Michelle Sparkman Renz, director of research for the council. It’s unclear why more women aren’t flocking to U.S. business schools, but clearly the corporate world has yet to embrace women in management. 

Female MBAs who graduated from 2000 to 2011 and are working full-time made only 81 percent of what their male counterparts are making, according to the council's research.

The gap may be narrowing for younger MBAs, the council found. For the class of 2011, ages 28 to 34, MBA graduates closed the gap in consulting, manufacturing and technology.

Not that women overseas are thrilled with the opportunities they find. The report surveyed alumni of international business school classes from 2000 to 2011 and found only 54 percent of the women polled said there were equal opportunities in the workplace, compared with 85 percent of men who thought so.

The report should be a "a call to action" for the U.S. government and U.S. companies, said Elissa Ellis Sangster, executive director of the Forte Foundation, an advocacy group for women in leadership. Emerging markets such as China, she said, are encouraging women to become business leaders, and the United States could be left behind. In this country, she added, we should also be saying, "let's educate women in business and let's have them become leaders." 

Women held only about 16 percent of board seats and 14 percent of executive officer positions at Fortune 500 companies last year, according to a study by Catalyst, a research firm.