October jobs report: Glassdoor data during the shutdown

The government shutdown that began on October 1 has now persisted through the end of month, delaying usually scheduled data releases on the job market from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. At a time of heightened economic uncertainty, what does Glassdoor data say about the health of the job market? Three of the four Glassdoor indicators below tracked negatively month-over-month in October, pointing to ongoing softening in the job market.

Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index

In October, the Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index dropped sharply, falling from 47.8% to 45.7%, reversing the bump in September and nearing the recent record low set in June. Travel related sectors like hotels & travel accommodation (-3 pp month-over-month) and transportation & logistics (-0.8 pp) saw drops in employee confidence. Additionally, public sector industries directly impacted by the shutdown also saw confidence decline in October: aerospace & defense (-1.1 pp), government & public administration (-0.4 pp) and nonprofit & NGO (-1.8 pp).

Pay

In Glassdoor data, salaries declined slightly again in October, dropping 0.3% month-over-month to $70,744 from $70,940 in September. On a year-over-year basis, salary growth improved slightly in October, rising 5.2%, slightly faster than the 4.9% mark in September.

Layoff mentions in reviews

3.6% of reviews on Glassdoor mentioned layoff-related keywords in October, a 3.5% decline from September. While discussions declined modestly in October, a wave of layoff announcements rolled in right at the end of the month, which may boost worker anxiety in November. The share of reviews mentioning layoffs is still up 22% year-over-year, as of October, as employee anxiety about layoffs continues to remain elevated overall.

Job offers declined

In interviews reviews on Glassdoor from October 2025, 18% of candidates that received a job offer later declined it, down from 19% in September and down more sharply from 23% in October 2024. Workers who feel they have less leverage may be more likely to settle for an acceptable job offer rather than hold out for a better one. The declining rate of job offer rejections marries with slowing wage growth data to point to less leverage even for workers who are looking to switch jobs.

Methodology

The Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index is the share of U.S. full-time and part-time employees who report a positive 6-month business outlook for their employer, reweighted to account for changes in the platform and by industry to match a nationally representative mix of employee ratings by industry. To read more about the Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index, our October update can be found here and our launch paper describing our methodology can be found here.

Pay data is based on self-reported pay from U.S. full-time and part-time current employees on Glassdoor. Approximately 60,000 salaries each month were used in these estimates. Pay data was reweighted, using CPS microdata from IPUMS, based on industries and whether pay was hourly or not.

Data on the use of terms and phrases related to layoffs in Glassdoor reviews is not reweighted and is based on reviews from U.S. full-time and part-time, current or former employees through October 31, 2025. Terms may include different grammatical forms or similar phrases. For example, layoff-related terms include but are not limited to “layoffs”, “laid off”, “lays off”.

Interview review data is based on interview reviews from candidates interviewing for jobs in the U.S. where the interview happened within 1–2 months of the review submission and the interview resulted in a job offer which the candidate reported accepting or declining. The interview data is not reweighted. Recent interview data is also subject to revision as more interviews that started in recent months are completed and reviews for those interviews are submitted.