A primary concern for people around the world is to have a good job. This paper reviews the results from My World to try to find patterns in the weight people place on ‘jobs’ across five developing countries. A detailed analysis of employment needs based on objective and subjective indicators from the World Value Survey confirms that concerns about the quality of jobs as much as quantity, are driving the high ranking of employment in the My World survey. We also find that these demands are not uniform across population sub-groups or in different types of countries We finalise with some reflections on what this evidence implies about the different employment needs that are relevant for different people in different country contexts.