Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index: Shutdown spoils sentiment
Daniel Zhao
Chief Economist at Glassdoor | Nov 6, 2025
Employee confidence dropped in October, falling to the lowest level since June, according to the latest data from the Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index. The share of employees reporting a positive 6-month business outlook fell to 45.7% in October 2025, down from 47.8% in September. Employee confidence is down 2.7 percentage points from 51.9% last October. As the government shutdown kicked off at the start of the month, worker sentiment has tumbled.
Employee confidence by industry
- Travel related sectors have seen sharp declines in employee confidence. Hotels & travel accommodation (-3 percentage points month-over-month) and transportation & logistics (-0.8 pp) saw declines in employee outlook. The 2019 government shutdown ended in part due to the strain on air travel and as the busy holiday travel season approaches, workers in the travel industry are growing concerned.
- Government & public administration employees saw employee confidence fall another 0.4 pp in October. Other industries directly impacted by the government shutdown like aerospace & defense (-1.1 pp) and nonprofit & NGO (-1.8 pp) also saw sharp month-over-month declines in employee confidence in October. Aerospace & defense, which includes the military, has seen the largest drop in employee confidence over the last year, down 7.9 pp.
- Several white collar sectors saw declines in employee confidence in October, including financial services (-1.1 pp), media & communication (-1.5 pp), and information technology (-0.5 pp). A recent wave of layoff announcements in late October reiterate the difficult situation workers find themselves amid a tepid labor market where outside options are limited.
Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index by Industry
| Industry | Oct 2024 | Sep 2025 | Oct 2025 | MoM | YoY |
| Aerospace & Defense | 57.6% | 50.9% | 49.8% | -1.1% | -7.9% |
| Arts, Entertainment & Recreation | 40.7% | 40.5% | 39.1% | -1.4% | -1.6% |
| Construction, Repair & Maintenance Services | 55.0% | 52.9% | 52.4% | -0.5% | -2.6% |
| Education | 45.3% | 43.2% | 44.8% | 1.6% | -0.5% |
| Energy, Mining & Utilities | 53.1% | 47.4% | 47.8% | 0.4% | -5.3% |
| Financial Services | 51.7% | 53.0% | 51.9% | -1.1% | 0.2% |
| Government & Public Administration | 47.3% | 44.8% | 44.4% | -0.4% | -2.9% |
| Healthcare | 52.5% | 49.3% | 48.8% | -0.5% | -3.7% |
| Hotels & Travel Accommodation | 45.4% | 47.6% | 44.6% | -3.0% | -0.9% |
| Human Resources & Staffing | 58.3% | 53.8% | 55.7% | 2.0% | -2.6% |
| Information Technology | 52.8% | 51.2% | 50.7% | -0.5% | -2.2% |
| Insurance | 55.9% | 53.3% | 54.1% | 0.8% | -1.9% |
| Legal | 52.8% | 54.3% | 54.3% | 0.1% | 1.5% |
| Management & Consulting | 51.7% | 47.5% | 48.7% | 1.2% | -3.1% |
| Manufacturing | 43.7% | 40.9% | 40.7% | -0.2% | -3.0% |
| Media & Communication | 45.3% | 41.3% | 39.8% | -1.5% | -5.5% |
| Nonprofit & NGO | 45.2% | 43.7% | 41.9% | -1.8% | -3.3% |
| Personal Consumer Services | 36.7% | 44.1% | 43.9% | -0.3% | 7.2% |
| Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology | 36.6% | 38.4% | 39.2% | 0.8% | 2.6% |
| Real Estate | 59.7% | 55.7% | 55.7% | 0.1% | -3.9% |
| Restaurants & Food Service | 39.1% | 42.0% | 39.0% | -3.0% | -0.1% |
| Retail & Wholesale | 40.5% | 39.9% | 42.6% | 2.7% | 2.1% |
| Telecommunications | 40.5% | 45.5% | 43.7% | -1.8% | 3.2% |
| Transportation & Logistics | 45.1% | 46.3% | 45.5% | -0.8% | 0.4% |
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 fell for entry level by 1 pp in October, though employee confidence for entry level and mid level employees has remained largely unchanged over the last year.
Senior level employee confidence has fallen the most since October 2024, dropping 4.6 pp. Even as high-income consumer spending has held up and growth has remained solid, senior level employees are becoming more anxious about their companies’ business prospects.
The concern about the economy that senior employees have is important because it trickles down to other employees through hiring and investment plans. If senior employees are not convinced in their own businesses’ growth prospects, they may reduce hiring or even undergo layoffs.
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 October 2025 is updated through October 30, 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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