Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index: Winter chill
Daniel Zhao
Chief Economist at Glassdoor | Dec 16, 2024
Employee confidence dropped a tick in November to its lowest level since March 2024, according to the latest data from the Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index. The share of employees reporting a positive 6-month business outlook dropped to 47.5% in November 2024, down slightly from 48.1% in October. Employee confidence has changed little over the last 8 months, but the drop does take sentiment a hair below its recent levels. Even as the election passes and some business confidence measures rise, employee confidence remains under a winter chill.
Employee Confidence by Industry
A host of different blue-collar sectors saw declines in employee confidence in November:
- Employee confidence in construction, repair & maintenance services fell 1.7 percentage points month-over-month in November. Even as construction spending continues to grow, the industry has been slowing over the course of the year. There is cause for optimism though as interest rate cuts may help boost spending in 2025.
- Energy, mining & utilities (-2.1pp) saw declining employee confidence. Despite being an industry traditionally reliant on the political climate, oil and natural gas production hit record highs in the last year. Additionally, more jobs today are in green energy industries where policy uncertainty around Inflation Reduction Act incentives may be clouding the outlook.
- Similarly for manufacturing (-1.2pp), investment and spending rose following the IRA and CHIPS act. Incentives now in question under the new administration raise policy uncertainty for employers in the sector.
- Employee confidence fell in transportation & logistics (-1.5pp) in November as the holiday season is now fully underway. Holiday spending is projected to grow year-over-year, though as household budgets tighten, growth may be more moderate this year.
Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index by Industry
| Industry | Nov 2023 | Oct 2024 | Nov 2024 | MoM | YoY |
| Aerospace & Defense | 51.6% | 56.8% | 54.7% | -2.1% | 3.1% |
| Arts, Entertainment & Recreation | 38.7% | 41.0% | 41.5% | 0.6% | 2.8% |
| Construction, Repair & Maintenance Services | 56.7% | 54.8% | 53.1% | -1.7% | -3.6% |
| Education | 45.3% | 46.8% | 48.0% | 1.2% | 2.7% |
| Energy, Mining & Utilities | 55.0% | 54.0% | 52.0% | -2.1% | -3.0% |
| Financial Services | 50.3% | 51.8% | 52.3% | 0.5% | 2.1% |
| Government & Public Administration | 41.6% | 47.3% | 47.7% | 0.4% | 6.1% |
| Healthcare | 47.3% | 52.6% | 50.5% | -2.0% | 3.3% |
| Hotels & Travel Accommodation | 50.5% | 46.8% | 48.3% | 1.5% | -2.2% |
| Human Resources & Staffing | 56.1% | 58.5% | 57.4% | -1.1% | 1.2% |
| Information Technology | 49.9% | 53.9% | 52.4% | -1.5% | 2.5% |
| Insurance | 48.5% | 54.8% | 54.8% | -0.1% | 6.2% |
| Legal | 56.5% | 52.9% | 55.5% | 2.6% | -1.0% |
| Management & Consulting | 52.0% | 51.3% | 52.2% | 0.9% | 0.2% |
| Manufacturing | 45.0% | 43.4% | 42.2% | -1.2% | -2.8% |
| Media & Communication | 44.6% | 45.3% | 44.3% | -1.0% | -0.3% |
| Nonprofit & NGO | 44.7% | 46.1% | 48.1% | 2.0% | 3.4% |
| Personal Consumer Services | 42.1% | 36.8% | 37.8% | 1.0% | -4.3% |
| Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology | 42.0% | 36.9% | 38.7% | 1.9% | -3.3% |
| Real Estate | 56.1% | 58.6% | 59.1% | 0.6% | 3.1% |
| Restaurants & Food Service | 35.3% | 39.0% | 40.5% | 1.5% | 5.2% |
| Retail & Wholesale | 38.9% | 40.3% | 41.8% | 1.5% | 2.9% |
| Telecommunications | 41.2% | 40.0% | 40.7% | 0.7% | -0.5% |
| Transportation & Logistics | 45.2% | 44.8% | 43.3% | -1.5% | -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 has increased year-over-year for all seniority groups, rising the most for senior level employees (+1.4pp) and entry level employees (+1.3pp). By contrast, mid level employees have seen slightly weaker gains of 0.9 percentage points over the last year. The larger increase for the most senior employees may provide a hint of optimism as these are the leaders who drive investment and hiring decisions.
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 November 2024 is updated through November 30, 2024. In subsequent updates, we will revise partial or preliminary data from previous months. In today’s November release, we also made an update to increase the share of job titles successfully categorized into a seniority so this release’s data may not be comparable to previously published data, however, this release’s data does apply the new categorization to all historical data.
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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