Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index: A new record low
Daniel Zhao
Chief Economist at Glassdoor | May 12, 2026
Employee confidence plummeted in April, reaching a new record low, according to the latest data from the Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index. The share of employees reporting a positive 6-month business outlook crashed to 43.8% in April 2026. The decline follows a significant downward revision to March 2026 from 47.1% to 45.1% with the complete month’s worth of data in. The U.S.-Iran war and subsequent increase in energy prices appears to be pulling down employee confidence, even if it took several weeks to take hold in workers’ psyches.
Employee confidence by industry
- The largest decline in employee confidence over the last year remains the tech industry, which has seen a 9.7 percentage point drop in employee confidence year-over-year (including a 1.7 percentage point drop month-over-month in April).
- Energy, mining & utilities continue to see stronger employee confidence (+1.6 percentage points month-over-month, +3.1 percentage points year-over-year) as higher energy prices provide a potential windfall to domestic producers.
- Conversely, industries likely to be negatively impacted by higher energy prices have seen a sharp decline. Transportation & logistics (-1.4 percentage points month-over-month, -5.7 percentage points year-over-year) and hotels & travel accommodation (-2.3 percentage points month-over-month, -6.3 percentage points year-over-year) have seen large declines.
Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index by Industry
| Industry | Apr 2025 | Mar 2026 | Apr 2026 | MoM | YoY |
| Aerospace & Defense | 49.0% | 48.4% | 48.0% | -0.4% | -1.0% |
| Arts, Entertainment & Recreation | 36.0% | 37.1% | 34.2% | -2.9% | -1.7% |
| Construction, Repair & Maintenance Services | 54.2% | 54.1% | 53.7% | -0.4% | -0.5% |
| Education | 48.3% | 48.1% | 47.9% | -0.2% | -0.5% |
| Energy, Mining & Utilities | 50.2% | 51.7% | 53.3% | 1.6% | 3.1% |
| Financial Services | 53.6% | 52.9% | 52.7% | -0.2% | -0.9% |
| Government & Public Administration | 35.4% | 39.7% | 40.6% | 0.9% | 5.2% |
| Healthcare | 51.0% | 48.8% | 48.2% | -0.6% | -2.8% |
| Hotels & Travel Accommodation | 48.0% | 44.1% | 41.8% | -2.3% | -6.3% |
| Human Resources & Staffing | 57.6% | 54.8% | 53.8% | -1.0% | -3.7% |
| Information Technology | 54.6% | 46.6% | 44.9% | -1.7% | -9.7% |
| Insurance | 56.1% | 51.9% | 51.4% | -0.5% | -4.7% |
| Legal | 52.5% | 56.5% | 51.8% | -4.7% | -0.6% |
| Management & Consulting | 50.1% | 47.2% | 46.1% | -1.1% | -4.0% |
| Manufacturing | 41.2% | 39.2% | 39.7% | 0.5% | -1.5% |
| Media & Communication | 43.8% | 39.4% | 39.3% | -0.1% | -4.5% |
| Nonprofit & NGO | 43.9% | 40.3% | 41.6% | 1.3% | -2.3% |
| Personal Consumer Services | 42.4% | 39.3% | 38.1% | -1.1% | -4.3% |
| Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology | 39.0% | 40.2% | 38.2% | -2.0% | -0.8% |
| Real Estate | 58.2% | 53.7% | 54.1% | 0.4% | -4.2% |
| Restaurants & Food Service | 36.3% | 36.1% | 36.6% | 0.5% | 0.3% |
| Retail & Wholesale | 39.5% | 40.0% | 38.4% | -1.6% | -1.1% |
| Telecommunications | 44.8% | 39.1% | 38.9% | -0.2% | -5.8% |
| Transportation & Logistics | 45.9% | 41.7% | 40.2% | -1.4% | -5.7% |
Note: Industry-level data is the three-month trailing average of the index. MoM & YoY are percentage point changes.
Employee confidence by seniority
Employee confidence fell across seniority levels in April with the largest decline coming for entry level workers (-0.9 percentage points month-over-month), compared to mid level workers (-0.8 percentage points) and senior level employees (-0.6 percentage points). However, over the last year, the largest decline has still come from senior level employees who may be most concerned about geopolitical uncertainty: -2.4 percentage points year-over-year vs. -1.4 percentage points for entry level and +3.5 percentage points for mid level.
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 for April 2026 is updated through April 26, 2026. 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.
An Excel file containing the Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index data is available here.
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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