Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index: More weeks of winter for workers
Daniel Zhao
Chief Economist at Glassdoor | Mar 10, 2026
Employee confidence fell further in February, according to the latest data from the Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index. The share of employees reporting a positive 6-month business outlook ticked down to 44.3% in February 2026, a drop from 45.9% in January 2026. Even as some signs of green shoots in the job market start to crop up, winter is still here for employee confidence, leaving a chill in the air.
Employee confidence by industry
- The tech industry has seen the largest drop in employee confidence over the last year with a 7.1 percentage point drop. Despite rapidly increasing investment in AI and data centers, employees are still hesitant about their prospects after several years of cost cutting and layoffs.
- Government & public administration (-1.1 percentage points month-over-month, -0.8 percentage points year-over-year) was previously the industry with the largest year-over-year drop, but we are now lapping a period of weak employee outlook from last year. Additionally, the government shutdowns in February may be sapping employee confidence among government workers.
- This February update does not include data from after the Supreme Court struck down much of the Trump administration’s tariffs on February 21. Looking ahead, it’s unclear whether this will provide any short-term boon to worker confidence in affected industries as the Trump administration has followed up by levying new tariffs under different authorities. But as a snapshot in time: employee confidence has declined 1.5 percentage points year-over-year in both manufacturing and transportation & logistics, two industries impacted by the tariffs.
Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index by Industry
| Industry | Feb 2025 | Jan 2025 | Feb 2026 | MoM | YoY |
| Aerospace & Defense | 48.9% | 49.8% | 49.1% | -0.7% | 0.2% |
| Arts, Entertainment & Recreation | 37.1% | 38.4% | 36.1% | -2.3% | -1.0% |
| Construction, Repair & Maintenance Services | 52.8% | 53.3% | 54.7% | 1.4% | 1.9% |
| Education | 48.8% | 48.4% | 49.6% | 1.2% | 0.8% |
| Energy, Mining & Utilities | 50.9% | 49.6% | 50.4% | 0.7% | -0.5% |
| Financial Services | 50.2% | 53.2% | 51.9% | -1.3% | 1.7% |
| Government & Public Administration | 40.0% | 40.3% | 39.2% | -1.1% | -0.8% |
| Healthcare | 50.7% | 49.8% | 49.9% | 0.1% | -0.8% |
| Hotels & Travel Accommodation | 43.0% | 43.3% | 44.6% | 1.3% | 1.6% |
| Human Resources & Staffing | 59.7% | 55.2% | 55.7% | 0.5% | -4.0% |
| Information Technology | 55.0% | 49.4% | 47.8% | -1.6% | -7.1% |
| Insurance | 53.8% | 53.2% | 54.6% | 1.4% | 0.9% |
| Legal | 56.3% | 61.0% | 60.0% | -1.0% | 3.6% |
| Management & Consulting | 46.9% | 48.6% | 47.3% | -1.3% | 0.4% |
| Manufacturing | 41.4% | 40.3% | 39.8% | -0.4% | -1.5% |
| Media & Communication | 42.6% | 42.1% | 41.9% | -0.3% | -0.7% |
| Nonprofit & NGO | 46.3% | 42.9% | 41.8% | -1.1% | -4.5% |
| Personal Consumer Services | 40.3% | 42.2% | 41.2% | -1.1% | 0.9% |
| Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology | 41.9% | 42.5% | 42.2% | -0.3% | 0.3% |
| Real Estate | 58.2% | 55.2% | 54.1% | -1.1% | -4.1% |
| Restaurants & Food Service | 38.2% | 36.5% | 34.5% | -2.0% | -3.7% |
| Retail & Wholesale | 38.0% | 42.1% | 41.3% | -0.8% | 3.3% |
| Telecommunications | 44.4% | 39.8% | 38.8% | -0.9% | -5.5% |
| Transportation & Logistics | 43.4% | 42.6% | 41.9% | -0.7% | -1.5% |
Employee confidence by seniority
Entry level employee confidence fell 1.1 percentage points in February. However, entry level and mid level employee confidence remains relatively unchanged over the last year, down 0.1 percentage points and up 0.3 percentage points respectively. Senior level employee confidence, however, has fallen more substantially, dropping 4.1 percentage points over the last year. Senior level employee confidence has been subdued since last May, around when economic policy uncertainty began to spike.
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 February 2026 is updated through February 19, 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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