Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index: Sentiment stumbles
Daniel Zhao
Chief Economist at Glassdoor | Dec 11, 2025
Employee confidence tumbled in November, dropping to its lowest level since June, which was a record low, according to the latest data from the Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index. The share of employees reporting a positive 6-month business outlook fell to 44.6% in November 2025, down from 45.9% in October. Despite the end of the government shutdown, workers remain concerned about the trajectory of the economy especially as a wave of layoffs gripped the headlines at the start of the month.
Employee confidence by industry
- Industries most impacted by the government shutdown still have had the largest declines in employee confidence over the last year even as the government reopened. Government & public administration (-5.7 percentage points year-over-year), aerospace & defense which includes the military (-8 pp) and nonprofit & NGO (-4.2 pp) have all seen major declines over the last year.
- Employee confidence declined modestly in several white collar sectors in November, including legal (-1.9 percentage points month-over-month), insurance (-1.7pp), financial services (-1 pp), and information technology (-0.3 pp). A wave of layoff announcements landed at the end of October and beginning of November, which may be a drag on workers anxious about the health of the job market and their job security.
- Heading into the holiday season, employee confidence in retail & wholesale is growing (+1.1 percentage points year-over-year). Even as the job market has slowed, consumer spending buoyed by higher income Americans has continued to expand.
Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index by Industry
| Industry | Nov 2024 | Oct 2025 | Nov 2025 | MoM | YoY |
| Aerospace & Defense | 54.7% | 49.5% | 46.7% | -2.9% | -8.0% |
| Arts, Entertainment & Recreation | 41.3% | 39.1% | 41.1% | 2.1% | -0.2% |
| Construction, Repair & Maintenance Services | 52.5% | 52.5% | 51.4% | -1.1% | -1.1% |
| Education | 47.2% | 44.8% | 46.1% | 1.2% | -1.1% |
| Energy, Mining & Utilities | 50.4% | 48.1% | 48.8% | 0.7% | -1.6% |
| Financial Services | 52.4% | 52.0% | 51.0% | -1.0% | -1.4% |
| Government & Public Administration | 48.9% | 44.8% | 43.1% | -1.7% | -5.7% |
| Healthcare | 50.4% | 48.9% | 48.2% | -0.6% | -2.1% |
| Hotels & Travel Accommodation | 46.7% | 44.3% | 41.9% | -2.4% | -4.7% |
| Human Resources & Staffing | 57.2% | 55.8% | 56.9% | 1.0% | -0.3% |
| Information Technology | 51.7% | 50.9% | 50.7% | -0.3% | -1.1% |
| Insurance | 55.6% | 54.2% | 52.5% | -1.7% | -3.1% |
| Legal | 55.6% | 54.7% | 52.9% | -1.9% | -2.7% |
| Management & Consulting | 52.7% | 48.8% | 48.9% | 0.2% | -3.7% |
| Manufacturing | 42.3% | 40.8% | 40.8% | 0.0% | -1.5% |
| Media & Communication | 43.9% | 40.1% | 40.8% | 0.7% | -3.0% |
| Nonprofit & NGO | 46.8% | 42.2% | 42.6% | 0.4% | -4.2% |
| Personal Consumer Services | 37.8% | 44.0% | 42.9% | -1.0% | 5.2% |
| Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology | 38.1% | 39.3% | 39.2% | -0.1% | 1.1% |
| Real Estate | 60.1% | 55.9% | 55.4% | -0.5% | -4.7% |
| Restaurants & Food Service | 40.6% | 39.2% | 37.7% | -1.5% | -2.9% |
| Retail & Wholesale | 42.3% | 42.6% | 43.4% | 0.8% | 1.1% |
| Telecommunications | 42.7% | 43.7% | 42.0% | -1.7% | -0.7% |
| Transportation & Logistics | 43.4% | 45.7% | 46.5% | 0.8% | 3.0% |
Employee confidence by seniority
Mid level employee confidence fell 2.5 percentage points in November, reversing an uptick in October. Employee confidence for entry level (+0.5 percentage points) and senior level (+0.9 percentage points) employees rose slightly in November. Senior level employees have seen the largest drop in employee confidence over the last year, dropping 4.6 percentage points over the last year compared to entry level workers (+0.8 percentage points) and mid level employees (-2.9 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 November 2025 is updated through November 29, 2025. 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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