U.S. worker engagement falls to 29% as hiring stays cold

By Grace Kim

U.S. employee engagement fell to 29% in the third quarter, the lowest level since 2011, according to Gallup’s survey of adults. Gallup defines engagement as employees’ involvement and enthusiasm in their work and workplace. The measure rose steadily during the 2010s, peaked in 2020 and then dropped to 29%.

What do the national hiring and separation rates show?

The labor market remains what Indeed calls low-hire, low-fire: limited hiring makes it difficult to move, while limited firing gives employed people security.

• The quits rate reached 2.1% in September, above the previous 12-month average of about 2%, but still below the Great Resignation level from a few years ago.
• The hires rate was 3.4% in September, rising for the second consecutive month but remaining comparable with the early 2010s.
• The New York Fed’s consumer survey found 42.1% of people were happy with promotion prospects in July, slightly above March but still low in a series dating to March 2014.

Economists use the quits rate as a confidence signal: a higher rate usually indicates that workers believe they can find another job. At 2.1%, the rate shows movement without a return to mass departures.

Takeaway: Hiring is recovering at the margin, but worker leverage remains weak.

Why do secure jobs still feel stuck?

Indeed senior economist Cory Stahle said the low-hire, low-fire balance makes it harder to switch jobs or secure a raise because workers lack the leverage of an outside offer. He said: “Obviously the low-fire means job security, but at the same time, if you have a secure job, but you feel like your wage is getting eroded and not keeping up the way that prices are increasing, that doesn’t feel good.”

Glassdoor chief economist Daniel Zhao said soft hiring hurts unemployed and employed people alike. People looking for work have fewer openings; people with jobs have fewer paths upward or less leverage over their current employers.

Zhao said: “If you can’t credibly quit and find a better job, then there’s no pressure on your current employer to give you a raise or a promotion. That means that workers are stuck in their current situations and they don’t have an outlet for their frustration.”

Takeaway: The labor market protects the current job more than it opens a better one.

Where is engagement slipping?

Gallup’s Jim Harter found particularly large declines among hybrid and remote employees in organizations that have adopted AI. He also found that fewer employees reported clear expectations or guidance, or felt that someone at work cared about them.

Harter said the pattern suggests AI adoption may be outpacing the communication and managerial support needed to make it effective. The source provides no breakdown by sector or occupation; the narrower finding applies to work arrangements and AI adoption, not to specific job families.

Takeaway: The narrower signal concerns remote and hybrid workers at AI adopters, not any one profession.

Could stronger hiring produce a resignation wave?

Zhao said workers may be sitting in jobs that no longer fit because they are struggling to find new roles. People naturally outgrow jobs, he said, but a healthy market would let them move on; today’s weak hiring keeps them in place.

He advised people to prepare for 2027 even if the current market remains difficult, so they can take advantage of more opportunities if they appear.

If hiring heats up, he said, pent-up frustration and the desire for greener opportunities could quickly turn into employee attrition and another Great Resignation-style wave of job-hopping.

Takeaway: Better hiring would do more than fill vacancies; it could release a concentrated wave of workers ready to move.

How firm are these signals?

Gallup’s engagement result comes from its survey of adults, and the promotion figure comes from the New York Fed’s consumer survey. The published material does not state sample sizes, note revisions or identify the agency behind the turnover series, and it offers no occupational detail.

Read as a national direction, the evidence points to weaker morale and constrained mobility. It does not show that a specific profession is close to a resignation wave.

Looking ahead, a sustained rise in hiring and quits would provide the clearest evidence that workers are regaining enough confidence—and leverage—to move.