Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index: Ending a lackluster 2024
Daniel Zhao
Chief Economist at Glassdoor | Jan 13, 2025
Employee confidence dropped in December, ending the year at the same point it was at the end of 2023, according to the latest data from the Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index. The share of employees reporting a positive 6-month business outlook fell to 46.5% in December 2024, down from 47.5% in November. Ultimately, however, this leaves employee confidence at the same level it was at in December 2023. After a 2024 marked by a cooling job market, employees remain no more confident in their employers’ business outlook now than they were a year ago.
It’s appropriate that employee confidence ended the year at the same level it started given that a major theme for employees in 2024 was feeling stuck in their careers. In Glassdoor’s Worklife Trends 2025 report, we highlighted a survey of professionals that found 65% of respondents feel stuck and employee satisfaction with career opportunities dropped 3% over the last two years. As 2025 begins, a hotter job market will be necessary to help jolt employees out of the funk they’re in following a lackluster 2024.
Employee Confidence by Industry
Interestingly, over 2024, white collar industries have seen some rebound in employee confidence. Legal (+5 percentage points year-over-year), insurance (+5.8pp), financial services (+3.1pp), information technology (+3.8pp) and real estate (+3.2pp) have all seen modest improvements, in part because sentiment is rebounding from very low levels at the end of 2023.
On the other hand, several blue-collar sectors have seen larger declines in employee confidence like hotels & travel accommodation (-4.4pp), transportation & logistics (-2.2pp), construction, repair & maintenance services (-1.2pp) and manufacturing (-2.6pp). Several of these sectors are cooling off from much hotter pandemic growth.
Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index by Industry
| Industry | Dec 2023 | Nov 2024 | Dec 2024 | MoM | YoY |
| Aerospace & Defense | 50.1% | 54.9% | 55.1% | 0.3% | 5.1% |
| Arts, Entertainment & Recreation | 39.1% | 41.5% | 42.2% | 0.7% | 3.0% |
| Construction, Repair & Maintenance Services | 55.8% | 53.0% | 54.6% | 1.6% | -1.2% |
| Education | 44.9% | 47.9% | 48.0% | 0.0% | 3.1% |
| Energy, Mining & Utilities | 53.1% | 51.9% | 52.7% | 0.8% | -0.4% |
| Financial Services | 49.2% | 52.6% | 52.3% | -0.3% | 3.1% |
| Government & Public Administration | 42.4% | 48.0% | 45.2% | -2.8% | 2.8% |
| Healthcare | 47.7% | 50.9% | 49.7% | -1.2% | 2.0% |
| Hotels & Travel Accommodation | 50.4% | 48.5% | 46.0% | -2.5% | -4.4% |
| Human Resources & Staffing | 55.9% | 57.2% | 57.7% | 0.5% | 1.9% |
| Information Technology | 49.9% | 52.3% | 53.7% | 1.4% | 3.8% |
| Insurance | 49.0% | 55.0% | 54.9% | -0.1% | 5.8% |
| Legal | 52.5% | 55.9% | 57.5% | 1.6% | 5.0% |
| Management & Consulting | 52.4% | 52.3% | 51.7% | -0.6% | -0.7% |
| Manufacturing | 44.6% | 42.1% | 42.0% | -0.1% | -2.6% |
| Media & Communication | 45.2% | 44.2% | 45.1% | 0.9% | -0.1% |
| Nonprofit & NGO | 48.2% | 47.7% | 46.7% | -1.0% | -1.5% |
| Personal Consumer Services | 39.8% | 37.9% | 39.5% | 1.6% | -0.2% |
| Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology | 43.1% | 38.5% | 41.7% | 3.2% | -1.4% |
| Real Estate | 56.5% | 59.1% | 59.6% | 0.5% | 3.2% |
| Restaurants & Food Service | 35.6% | 40.4% | 40.5% | 0.1% | 5.0% |
| Retail & Wholesale | 39.6% | 41.9% | 40.9% | -1.0% | 1.3% |
| Telecommunications | 41.4% | 40.7% | 41.8% | 1.0% | 0.4% |
| Transportation & Logistics | 45.1% | 42.7% | 42.9% | 0.1% | -2.2% |
Employee Confidence by Seniority
Employee confidence is little changed over the last year overall, though there has been a slight improvement for entry level employees (+2.3pp) and mid level employees (+1.1pp) from December 2023 to December 2024. For senior employees, confidence has declined modestly by 0.8 percentage points.
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 December 2024 is updated through December 31, 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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