Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index: Green Shoots of a Rebound
Daniel Zhao
Chief Economist at Glassdoor | Apr 30, 2024
Employee confidence jumped in April, according to the latest data from the Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index. The share of employees reporting a positive 6-month business outlook rose to 47.8% in April 2024, up from 46.2% in March, rebounding to the highest level since June 2023. While employee confidence is still down from 2022, the rebound is a welcome sign that the job market may be opening up again.
One reason for the rebound in employee confidence may be fading concern about layoffs. The share of Glassdoor reviews that mention layoffs dropped in April, falling 9% to the lowest level since July 2023. While discussions of layoffs remain elevated, less salience of layoffs may help assuage employee fears about job security.
Additionally, concerns about layoffs gripping employees for much of the last 2 years have highlighted the importance of senior leadership. Reviews that mention layoffs regularly also mention leadership, ranging from blame for the decision to undergo layoffs to thanks for leadership transparency and communication.
Strong senior leadership may even help maintain employee confidence even amidst layoffs. When we look at reviews that mention layoffs but also have strong senior leadership ratings, the majority of reviewers still report a positive business outlook for their employers. Of reviewers that discuss layoffs but still rate their employer’s senior management a 5 out of 5 stars, 72% report a positive business outlook. Similarly, for 4-star reviewers, 51% report a positive business outlook.
When undergoing a difficult change like layoffs, senior management has broad power to affect how employees will react. Building up credibility with employees in good times is critical to keeping that credibility in bad times. Similarly, reviews often cite being transparent and considerate as important leadership qualities during layoffs.
Employee Confidence by Industry
- Employee confidence increased the most in the Human Resources & Staffing industry, rising 4.6 percentage points in April. Improving confidence in this industry is particularly important as their business relies on other businesses hiring and staffing up.
- Employee confidence rose month-over-month in Transportation & Logistics (+2.8%) and Retail & Wholesale (+2%) in April as solid consumer spending buoyed the prospects for these businesses.
- After a rough 2023, white collar industries like Information Technology (+1.0%) and Management & Consulting (+1.2%) are showing signs of life as employee confidence improved in April.
Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index by Industry
| Industry | Apr 2023 | Mar 2024 | Apr 2024 | MoM | YoY |
| Aerospace & Defense | 56.4% | 54.6% | 50.8% | -3.8% | -5.6% |
| Arts, Entertainment & Recreation | 45.3% | 41.4% | 41.5% | 0.2% | -3.8% |
| Construction, Repair & Maintenance Services | 59.0% | 55.1% | 55.8% | 0.7% | -3.2% |
| Education | 49.3% | 46.4% | 47.8% | 1.4% | -1.5% |
| Energy, Mining & Utilities | 58.5% | 53.8% | 52.7% | -1.1% | -5.8% |
| Financial Services | 54.7% | 49.6% | 49.3% | -0.3% | -5.4% |
| Government & Public Administration | 44.0% | 44.8% | 43.0% | -1.8% | -1.0% |
| Healthcare | 50.5% | 48.4% | 48.9% | 0.5% | -1.7% |
| Hotels & Travel Accommodation | 49.6% | 44.0% | 43.7% | -0.3% | -5.9% |
| Human Resources & Staffing | 63.1% | 52.8% | 57.4% | 4.6% | -5.7% |
| Information Technology | 55.2% | 51.4% | 52.5% | 1.0% | -2.7% |
| Insurance | 56.7% | 48.7% | 50.3% | 1.7% | -6.4% |
| Legal | 56.8% | 54.4% | 54.9% | 0.5% | -1.9% |
| Management & Consulting | 55.6% | 49.2% | 50.4% | 1.2% | -5.2% |
| Manufacturing | 49.5% | 44.3% | 44.2% | -0.1% | -5.2% |
| Media & Communication | 52.9% | 45.4% | 45.5% | 0.1% | -7.4% |
| Nonprofit & NGO | 50.4% | 47.3% | 47.7% | 0.4% | -2.8% |
| Personal Consumer Services | 44.5% | 38.0% | 37.4% | -0.6% | -7.1% |
| Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology | 48.7% | 39.1% | 40.6% | 1.5% | -8.1% |
| Real Estate | 60.5% | 53.2% | 53.7% | 0.5% | -6.8% |
| Restaurants & Food Service | 41.6% | 37.4% | 38.5% | 1.1% | -3.0% |
| Retail & Wholesale | 44.3% | 38.0% | 40.1% | 2.0% | -4.2% |
| Telecommunications | 51.5% | 42.9% | 42.2% | -0.7% | -9.3% |
| Transportation & Logistics | 51.5% | 42.6% | 45.4% | 2.8% | -6.1% |
Employee Confidence by Seniority
Employee confidence improved for all three seniority groups in April, rising the most for entry level workers where employee confidence rose 0.5 percentage points. Entry level workers, however, still have ground to make up as they have suffered the largest drop in employee confidence over the last year, still down 4.4 percentage points since last April compared to a 1.5 percentage point drop for directors and up and a 3.9 percentage point drop for mid senior level employees. The slowdown in hiring in the last year has made it hard for entry level workers to get their foot in the door.
Methodology
The Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index is a new report that provides a real-time pulse on the economy from the lens of employees. As one of the world’s leading sites for insights on jobs and companies, Glassdoor collects tens of thousands of employee ratings of their employers’ six-month business outlook (rated as “positive”, “neutral” or “negative”) each month.
The index is the share of U.S. full-time and part-time employees who report a positive six-month business outlook for their employer. The index is reweighted to account for changes in the platform and by industry to match a nationally representative mix of employee ratings by industry. Data presented at the industry and seniority level are three-month trailing averages.
Data on the use of terms and phrases in Glassdoor reviews is not reweighted. Term usage is normalized by the total number of reviews in the month.
Data for April 2024 is current as of April 21, 2024. In subsequent updates, we will revise partial or preliminary data from previous months.
To read more about the Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index, please read our launch paper.
Daniel Zhao
Daniel Zhao is Chief Economist at Glassdoor. On Glassdoor's Economic Research team, he has conducted research using Glassdoor's unique data on a variety of topics affecting job seekers and employers ranging from the health of the job market to pay transparency to employee engagement & retention. His work has been cited in publications like the New York Times, the Harvard Business Review and more. Prior to joining the Economic Research team, he also worked on improving the user experience for Glassdoor’s consumer jobs product and mobile app. He holds a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics and economics from Harvard College.
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