Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index: Modest rebound
Daniel Zhao
Chief Economist at Glassdoor | Oct 2, 2025
Employee confidence improved in September, rising to the highest level since November 2024, according to the latest data from the Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index. The share of employees reporting a positive 6 month business outlook rose to 47.7% in September 2025, up from 45.6% in August 2025 (revised up from 44.5%) but still down 0.5 percentage points compared to September 2024 when employee confidence was at 48.1%.
The recent record low in June likely reflects the heightened uncertainty facing the economy from April through June as businesses and workers alike grappled with rapidly shifting policy, in particular on trade and tariffs. As some of this uncertainty has cleared up, the worst fears around tariffs have been allayed and other countries enter into trade negotiations, employees have grown modestly more confident in their employers’ business outlooks. However, employee sentiment remains tepid at best with confidence staying well below pre-pandemic levels as the cooling job market remains a source of anxiety for workers.
Employee confidence by industry
- Employee confidence rose in September in several sectors that rely on consumer spending. Personal consumer services (+2.6 percentage points month-over-month), restaurants & food service (+1 pp), retail & wholesale (+1.4 pp) all saw improvements, perhaps as tariffs have not crimped consumer spending as much as originally concerned.
- The employee outlook in government & public administration improved in September and is now only slightly down over the last year. The recent improvement has come from a mix of Americans in the military and federal law enforcement as well as in some departments previously affected by the DOGE layoffs. As the federal worker buyout deadline nears, employees receiving their final paid leave paychecks through the end of September may be breathing a sigh of relief.
Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index by Industry
| Industry | Sep 2024 | Aug 2025 | Sep 2025 | MoM | YoY |
| Aerospace & Defense | 55.2% | 51.5% | 50.6% | -0.9% | -4.6% |
| Arts, Entertainment & Recreation | 40.4% | 40.9% | 40.4% | -0.5% | 0.0% |
| Construction, Repair & Maintenance Services | 54.9% | 52.4% | 52.7% | 0.3% | -2.1% |
| Education | 45.0% | 40.6% | 43.0% | 2.3% | -2.0% |
| Energy, Mining & Utilities | 52.5% | 48.4% | 48.1% | -0.3% | -4.5% |
| Financial Services | 52.5% | 53.4% | 52.6% | -0.8% | 0.2% |
| Government & Public Administration | 45.3% | 40.2% | 45.0% | 4.9% | -0.2% |
| Healthcare | 52.2% | 48.5% | 49.4% | 0.9% | -2.9% |
| Hotels & Travel Accommodation | 44.4% | 49.7% | 48.0% | -1.7% | 3.6% |
| Human Resources & Staffing | 60.2% | 53.1% | 53.3% | 0.2% | -6.9% |
| Information Technology | 52.9% | 49.8% | 51.1% | 1.2% | -1.8% |
| Insurance | 53.3% | 54.5% | 53.6% | -0.9% | 0.3% |
| Legal | 52.2% | 57.0% | 53.0% | -4.1% | 0.8% |
| Management & Consulting | 51.5% | 46.8% | 47.4% | 0.6% | -4.1% |
| Manufacturing | 43.3% | 40.1% | 41.4% | 1.3% | -1.9% |
| Media & Communication | 44.9% | 43.1% | 41.2% | -1.9% | -3.7% |
| Nonprofit & NGO | 47.1% | 41.8% | 43.9% | 2.1% | -3.3% |
| Personal Consumer Services | 38.8% | 41.0% | 43.5% | 2.6% | 4.8% |
| Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology | 38.2% | 37.1% | 38.6% | 1.6% | 0.4% |
| Real Estate | 58.8% | 55.0% | 55.4% | 0.4% | -3.5% |
| Restaurants & Food Service | 39.1% | 41.3% | 42.2% | 1.0% | 3.1% |
| Retail & Wholesale | 40.2% | 38.3% | 39.7% | 1.4% | -0.5% |
| Telecommunications | 41.2% | 42.9% | 45.8% | 2.9% | 4.5% |
| Transportation & Logistics | 46.7% | 47.0% | 46.1% | -0.8% | -0.5% |
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 improved for entry level and mid level employees in September 2025. 47.6% of entry level employees had a positive business outlook for their employers, up from 45.7% in August. Similarly, 51.1% of mid level employees had a positive business outlook, up from 48.8% in August. By contrast, senior level employees saw their employee confidence decline from 59.3% to 58.4%.
While employee confidence figures are volatile on a monthly basis, the modest improvements for entry level and mid level employees may reflect the toll that heightened policy uncertainty took on workers from April to June as tariff policy changes gripped headlines. Senior level confidence was more steady during this time period, but has continued to fall since then, raising a concern as senior level employees are the ones who set hiring and investment plans.
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 September 2025 is updated through September 27, 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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