Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index: Second straight record low
Daniel Zhao
Chief Economist at Glassdoor | Jun 8, 2026
Employee confidence slipped further in May, marking a new record low for the second straight month, according to the latest data from the Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index. The share of employees reporting a positive 6-month business outlook fell to 43.5% in May, down from 44.2% in April (revised up from 43.8%). Weakening employee sentiment comes as rising energy prices threaten to disrupt the economy and put pressure on American households. A soft hiring environment is also making workers feel frozen in the job market, granting fewer opportunities for upward mobility and wage growth.
Employee confidence by industry
- The tech industry has seen employee confidence decline 9.3 percentage points over the last year, the largest year-over-year decline of any industry in our data. Despite ever-increasing AI hype, workers in the tech industry remain sanguine about employer prospects.
- Rising energy prices are boosting employee confidence in energy, mining & utilities (+5.1 percentage points year-over-year) as employees grow optimistic about their employers’ ability to benefit from the windfall.
- Tourism-related industries are being squeezed as higher energy prices bite. Employee confidence has declined significantly in hotels & travel accommodation (-8.7 percentage points year-over-year) and arts, entertainment & recreation (-5.4 percentage points). By contrast, employee confidence has not declined as much in transportation & logistics (-1.8 percentage points).
Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index by Industry
| Industry | May 2025 | Apr 2026 | May 2026 | MoM | YoY |
| Aerospace & Defense | 51.6% | 48.2% | 49.7% | 1.5% | -1.9% |
| Arts, Entertainment & Recreation | 37.0% | 33.7% | 31.7% | -2.0% | -5.4% |
| Construction, Repair & Maintenance Services | 55.6% | 53.8% | 51.5% | -2.2% | -4.1% |
| Education | 47.2% | 48.4% | 46.1% | -2.2% | -1.1% |
| Energy, Mining & Utilities | 48.2% | 53.8% | 53.3% | -0.5% | 5.1% |
| Financial Services | 54.8% | 53.0% | 53.6% | 0.6% | -1.2% |
| Government & Public Administration | 35.6% | 41.3% | 42.9% | 1.5% | 7.2% |
| Healthcare | 50.9% | 48.2% | 47.6% | -0.6% | -3.3% |
| Hotels & Travel Accommodation | 47.1% | 42.9% | 38.4% | -4.5% | -8.7% |
| Human Resources & Staffing | 56.2% | 54.2% | 53.5% | -0.7% | -2.7% |
| Information Technology | 54.2% | 45.3% | 44.9% | -0.4% | -9.3% |
| Insurance | 56.7% | 51.2% | 48.6% | -2.5% | -8.0% |
| Legal | 54.5% | 52.1% | 52.6% | 0.6% | -1.9% |
| Management & Consulting | 49.9% | 46.3% | 44.6% | -1.7% | -5.4% |
| Manufacturing | 41.2% | 39.6% | 40.2% | 0.5% | -1.1% |
| Media & Communication | 44.3% | 39.7% | 40.4% | 0.7% | -3.9% |
| Nonprofit & NGO | 43.6% | 41.6% | 40.6% | -1.0% | -3.0% |
| Personal Consumer Services | 44.4% | 39.2% | 40.0% | 0.8% | -4.4% |
| Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology | 40.8% | 38.3% | 37.2% | -1.1% | -3.6% |
| Real Estate | 58.7% | 54.4% | 53.7% | -0.7% | -5.0% |
| Restaurants & Food Service | 35.3% | 36.7% | 37.2% | 0.5% | 1.9% |
| Retail & Wholesale | 39.6% | 38.1% | 37.1% | -1.0% | -2.5% |
| Telecommunications | 45.8% | 39.5% | 39.0% | -0.5% | -6.8% |
| Transportation & Logistics | 43.0% | 40.3% | 41.2% | 0.9% | -1.8% |
Employee confidence by seniority
Amidst graduation season, employee confidence has fallen the most for entry level workers (-2.4 percentage points year-over-year) compared to May 2025, pointing to the difficult job market that new grads are entering. By contrast, senior level employees have seen a modest -0.6 percentage point change year-over-year while mid level employee confidence improved slightly by +1.6 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 May 2026 is updated through May 30, 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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