Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index: Uptick from record low
Daniel Zhao
Chief Economist at Glassdoor | Apr 8, 2025
Employee confidence ticked up in March, rising from the record low in February, according to the latest data from the Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index. The share of employees reporting a positive 6 month business outlook rose to 45.2% in March 2025, up from a record low 44.7% in February 2025 (revised up from 44.4%). Economic uncertainty remains a significant drag on the sentiment of workers as tariffs, federal funding and workforce cuts, and general business uncertainty disrupt investment and hiring plans.
Mentions of terms related to economic anxiety in Glassdoor reviews showed a cloudy picture in March in line with employee confidence only slightly higher than a record low. Mentions of “layoffs” in Glassdoor reviews fell 7% in March compared to February, but are still up 4% year over year. By contrast, mentions of “recession” in Glassdoor reviews rose 16% in March month-over-month, but is still 7% below March 2024. Interestingly, inflation is one area where concern is fading with 9% fewer mentions month over month or 22% fewer mentions year over year as concerns over egg prices and inflation in general take a slight backseat.
Employee confidence by industry
- The industries with the largest drops in employee confidence over the last year include aerospace & defense (-11 percentage points), government & public administration (-6.6 pp) and nonprofit & NGO (-4.6 pp)—all industries that have been affected severely by the DOGE layoffs and funding cuts.
- Other goods-producing sectors like manufacturing (-3.5 pp), energy, mining & utilities (-3.4 pp), and construction, repair & maintenance services (-1.7 pp) have seen stark drops in employee confidence over the last year. Trade policy whiplash is injecting significant uncertainty for businesses that rely on global supply chains.
Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index by Industry
| Industry | Mar 2024 | Feb 2025 | Mar 2025 | MoM | YoY |
| Aerospace & Defense | 56.7% | 48.4% | 45.7% | -2.7% | -11.0% |
| Arts, Entertainment & Recreation | 40.5% | 39.8% | 38.3% | -1.5% | -2.2% |
| Construction, Repair & Maintenance Services | 55.1% | 54.0% | 53.4% | -0.7% | -1.7% |
| Education | 46.1% | 48.7% | 47.9% | -0.8% | 1.8% |
| Energy, Mining & Utilities | 52.9% | 50.4% | 49.5% | -0.8% | -3.4% |
| Financial Services | 49.2% | 49.5% | 49.4% | 0.0% | 0.2% |
| Government & Public Administration | 43.9% | 38.6% | 37.3% | -1.4% | -6.6% |
| Healthcare | 48.0% | 50.4% | 49.8% | -0.5% | 1.8% |
| Hotels & Travel Accommodation | 42.2% | 43.4% | 45.8% | 2.4% | 3.5% |
| Human Resources & Staffing | 54.4% | 59.4% | 57.6% | -1.8% | 3.2% |
| Information Technology | 51.4% | 55.2% | 53.8% | -1.4% | 2.4% |
| Insurance | 49.7% | 53.1% | 53.8% | 0.7% | 4.2% |
| Legal | 54.7% | 55.9% | 55.3% | -0.6% | 0.6% |
| Management & Consulting | 48.7% | 47.5% | 48.8% | 1.3% | 0.1% |
| Manufacturing | 43.9% | 40.6% | 40.4% | -0.2% | -3.5% |
| Media & Communication | 45.0% | 44.3% | 44.3% | -0.1% | -0.8% |
| Nonprofit & NGO | 47.6% | 44.6% | 42.9% | -1.6% | -4.6% |
| Personal Consumer Services | 38.1% | 39.9% | 41.0% | 1.1% | 3.0% |
| Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology | 39.0% | 42.4% | 41.1% | -1.3% | 2.1% |
| Real Estate | 53.2% | 58.0% | 57.1% | -1.0% | 3.9% |
| Restaurants & Food Service | 36.8% | 37.9% | 36.9% | -1.0% | 0.1% |
| Retail & Wholesale | 37.6% | 38.4% | 38.7% | 0.3% | 1.1% |
| Telecommunications | 43.2% | 43.9% | 43.3% | -0.6% | 0.2% |
| Transportation & Logistics | 42.7% | 44.1% | 44.6% | 0.5% | 1.9% |
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 for entry level employees fell to 43.4% in March 2025, a fresh low since our data began in April 2016. Employee confidence has fallen for entry level employees by 1.5 percentage points over the last year, but it has fallen even more for mid level employees (-1.8 percentage points). On the other hand, senior level employees have seen a more muted decline in confidence (-1.1 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 March 2025 is updated through March 30, 2025. In subsequent updates, we will revise partial or preliminary data from previous months.
Data on the use of terms and phrases in Glassdoor reviews is not reweighted and is current through March 30, 2025. Term usage is normalized by the total number of reviews in the month.
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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