I would say this would classify as a downward comparison as the person is talking about Mark who has a poorer job situation than him and this could be used to bolster the speaker's ego or to knock poor Mark or could just be an observation.
In this case the speaker is comparing his/her situation to someone else who is in a worse situation than him/ her. This is clearly a case of downward comparison.
Question: I may not have the greatest job in the world, but at least I'm not unemployed like Mark, would be an example of a(n)
