Employees at the Department of Homeland Security have the least job satisfaction of any other federal employees, a governmentwide survey found.

DHS received another low grade in the Office of Personnel Management’s job satisfaction survey, showing little — if any — improvement since the last OPM survey’s results were released in 2004.

Out of 36 agencies surveyed by OPM, DHS ranked last on the job satisfaction index, according to survey results released Tuesday; OPM ranked No. 1 for job satisfaction.

More than 10,400 DHS employees responded to the survey, and the message is clear: Morale is low, and there is not overwhelming confidence in the department’s leadership.

“These results deliver a clear and jolting message from managers and line employees alike,” DHS Deputy Secretary Michael P. Jackson said in a Jan. 30 e-mail to employees. “Secretary [Michael] Chertoff and I discussed these results with concern.”

According to the survey results, about half of the respondents would recommend DHS as a good place to work; about 43 percent do not think they have the resources to get their jobs done; most employees do not think promotions are based on merit; less than 25 percent think their creativity and innovation are rewarded; most do not think pay raises have anything to do with how well an employee does his or her job; and only about 34 percent of the employees think they are receiving adequate information about what is going on in their department. DHS has gone through several reorganizations in the past two years.

In his e-mail to employees, Jackson said, “Starting at the top, the leadership team across DHS is committed to address the underlying reasons for DHS employee dissatisfaction and suggestions for improvement.”

However, he added, “Standing up this new and vital Department is clearly not a walk in the park . . . DHS employees have shouldered the weight of long hours, complex integration assignments, multiple reorganizations, and no small amount of criticism.”

Earlier this month, the Homeland Security Advisory Council presented some recommendations for creating a common culture in the sprawling department. Jackson said he and Undersecretary for Management Paul Schneider will be carefully reviewing the OPM survey and considering the council’s recommendations.

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, I-Conn., chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, was disappointed with the survey’s results.

“Management problems at the department are well known, and among the Senator’s top priorities as new chairman of [the committee] are to improve basic management functions at DHS to raise employee job satisfaction and enable the department to do the job the American people expect it to do,” Lieberman’s spokeswoman Leslie Phillips said.

Eileen Sullivan can be reached at esullivan@cq.com.