Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index: Stuck in the mud
Daniel Zhao
Chief Economist at Glassdoor | Sep 11, 2024
Employee confidence dropped in August, according to the latest data from the Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index. The share of employees reporting a positive 6-month business outlook fell to 47.3% in August 2024, a small decrease from July (which was revised down to 47.8%). Despite some improvement since the beginning of the year, employee confidence remains stuck in the mud and stubbornly low as employees stress about the health of the economy and their employers.
As the 2024 election approaches, the economy remains a core electoral issue. Employee confidence overall remains weak in 2024, but notably, employee sentiment is actually stronger in red states ahead of the election than in blue states. Across 2024, employee confidence has been 0.5 percentage points higher in red states than the national average, while it’s 0.4 percentage points below the national average in blue states. Swing states are right down the middle, exactly even with the national average.
Southern states including the electorally important Florida (+1.1pp vs. national average), Georgia (+1.2pp) and Virginia (+2.7pp) have seen particularly strong employee confidence compared to other states. Conversely, Midwestern states like Pennsylvania (-1.5pp), Michigan (-1.9pp), Wisconsin (-1.5pp) are notably weaker.
Employee Confidence by Industry
- Employee confidence in white collar industries dropped in August. Financial services (-2.1 percentage points month-over-month), human resources & staffing (-1.1pp), legal (-3.5pp), management & consulting (-2.5pp) and pharmaceutical & biotechnology (-0.8pp) all saw declines in August as the white collar slowdown continues. Information technology was one exception with essentially no change in employee confidence (+0.2pp)
- The largest decline over the last year has been hotels and travel & accommodation (-6pp) while restaurants & food service (+1.8pp) remains strong. Consumer spending has been surprisingly resilient over the course of the recovery, but the shift in employee confidence may signal some trading down from travel and vacation spending to eating out instead as consumers feel their budgets tightening.
Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index by Industry
| Industry | Aug 2023 | Jul 2024 | Aug 2024 | MoM | YoY |
| Aerospace & Defense | 50.2% | 51.4% | 52.7% | 1.4% | 2.5% |
| Arts, Entertainment & Recreation | 42.0% | 38.3% | 38.2% | -0.1% | -3.8% |
| Construction, Repair & Maintenance Services | 59.3% | 56.9% | 56.6% | -0.4% | -2.8% |
| Education | 45.8% | 45.6% | 45.6% | -0.1% | -0.2% |
| Energy, Mining & Utilities | 55.5% | 55.1% | 55.4% | 0.3% | -0.2% |
| Financial Services | 54.4% | 57.0% | 54.9% | -2.1% | 0.5% |
| Government & Public Administration | 43.3% | 43.0% | 43.7% | 0.7% | 0.4% |
| Healthcare | 48.7% | 50.5% | 51.5% | 1.0% | 2.9% |
| Hotels & Travel Accommodation | 51.0% | 44.6% | 45.0% | 0.4% | -6.0% |
| Human Resources & Staffing | 58.5% | 60.6% | 59.5% | -1.1% | 1.0% |
| Information Technology | 50.9% | 54.2% | 54.4% | 0.2% | 3.5% |
| Insurance | 54.5% | 52.6% | 52.9% | 0.2% | -1.6% |
| Legal | 56.5% | 62.6% | 59.1% | -3.5% | 2.7% |
| Management & Consulting | 50.9% | 53.5% | 51.0% | -2.5% | 0.1% |
| Manufacturing | 47.3% | 45.0% | 44.8% | -0.1% | -2.5% |
| Media & Communication | 46.0% | 45.5% | 45.9% | 0.4% | -0.1% |
| Nonprofit & NGO | 45.0% | 49.4% | 50.1% | 0.7% | 5.2% |
| Personal Consumer Services | 42.3% | 43.2% | 38.9% | -4.3% | -3.3% |
| Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology | 41.1% | 41.9% | 41.1% | -0.8% | 0.0% |
| Real Estate | 57.6% | 55.6% | 57.5% | 1.9% | -0.1% |
| Restaurants & Food Service | 38.2% | 41.7% | 40.0% | -1.7% | 1.8% |
| Retail & Wholesale | 40.3% | 41.4% | 39.3% | -2.1% | -1.0% |
| Telecommunications | 47.4% | 44.6% | 45.0% | 0.5% | -2.3% |
| Transportation & Logistics | 47.6% | 47.5% | 49.1% | 1.6% | 1.4% |
Employee Confidence by Seniority
Employee confidence fell the most for senior-level employees in August, falling 3.5 percentage points to 64%. By contrast, mid-level employees saw their confidence fall 1.5 percentage points and entry-level employees saw confidence fall 1.2 percentage points. The sudden weakness in employee confidence for senior employees may signal softening macroeconomic conditions, especially if it results in pullbacks in 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.
Employee confidence by state is not reweighted. Red and blue states are defined by the results of recent presidential elections. Swing states include Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Data on the use of terms and phrases in Glassdoor reviews is not reweighted. Term usage is normalized by the total number of reviews in the month.
Data for August 2024 is updated through August 31, 2024. 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.
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.
