A report released this week by Gallup, Healthways and America's Health Insurance Plans suggests that reality is less grim in certain U.S. states as far as the recession is concerned. In these places, residents enjoy their jobs, express deep optimism about future prospects and even manage to stay healthy.

In general, folks surveyed out West had the highest sense of well-being, while more of those living in the South and Midwest reported being in the doldrums. West Virginians were the worst off, followed by those living in Kentucky and Mississippi. And after Utah, Hawaii and Wyoming were the next best places in the contentment ranking.

Jim Harter, a researcher at Gallup, said he was reluctant to explain regional differences without more study, but he suspected that some of the variations are explained by income. For example, when people were asked to examine their status in life now and five years from now, wealthier people tended to score higher.

Researchers hope the findings will help employers better understand what they can do to create more productive workers. Eventually, the data could even be used to compare health and happiness by ZIP code. The survey is going to be generated for 25 years, according to current plans.

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index is the definitive barometer of quality of life in America, drawing data from 1,000 surveys per day, seven days per week to measure how Americans are faring physically, emotionally, socially and economically at any given point in time. The WBI is the largest effort ever undertaken to measure America's comprehensive well-being, encompassing more than 423,000 interviews since its January 2008 launch. It is an invaluable tool for government policy-makers, community leaders, media agencies, employers, health plans and health care providers.