No jobs report: What does Glassdoor data say?

The government shutdown that began on October 1 has prevented the September jobs report from being published. While the September jobs report data has already been collected and is likely to be released whenever the shutdown ends, the data delay does increase the uncertainty around the health and trajectory of the labor market at a time when policymakers are looking for clues that the labor market is tipping into decline.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) sets the gold standard on measuring the labor market, but in the absence of BLS data, alternative data takes on more importance. Alternative data cannot replace the BLS but it can be a useful complement. With September now behind us, what does Glassdoor data say about the health of the job market? Unfortunately, the picture is not clear—two Glassdoor indicators suggest a firming job market, while another two point to a cooling job market.

Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index

In September, the Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index rose to 47.7% from 45.6% in August. Employee confidence rebounded modestly, though it still remains down 0.5 percentage points relative to September 2024.

Pay

Glassdoor data shows that salaries declined slightly in September. Salaries averaged $71,831 per year on Glassdoor in September, down 0.4% from August ($72,128). On a year-over-year basis, salaries grew 4.9% in September, a deceleration from 5.4% in August, and the slowest annual pace of growth since April 2025.

Layoff mentions in reviews

3.8% of reviews on Glassdoor mentioned layoff-related keywords in September, a 2.3% decline from August. Earlier in the year, layoffs were more prominent in headlines and as layoffs have faded slightly, employee concerns about layoffs diminished slightly in September. However, the share of reviews that mentioned layoffs is still up 26% year-over-year compared to September 2024 as worker anxiety about job security remains high.

Interview reviews

In interview reviews on Glassdoor submitted during September 2025, the share of candidates that received a job offer but declined it fell to 17% in September, down from 20% in August and down from 26% compared to September 2024. As hiring declines (as can be seen in the August JOLTS report released right before the government shutdown began), workers have less leverage when interviewing for a new job. The falling rate of candidates rejecting job offers suggests that more workers are settling for job offers they may not have accepted just a year ago.

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 September 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 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 September 28, 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.