The share of employees reporting a positive six-month business outlook was 44.6% in November, down from 45.9% in October, according to the most recent data from Glassdoor’s employee confidence index.

November’s figure was the lowest confidence level recorded by Glassdoor since June this year ( 44%).

Mid-level employee confidence fell 2.5 percentage points in November, while confidence for entry-level employees increased slightly (up 0.5 percentage points), along with senior-level confidence (up 0.9 percentage points).

Senior-level employees experienced the largest fall in employee confidence over the last year, declining by 4.6 percentage points compared to entry-level workers (+0.8 percentage points) and mid-level employees (-2.9 percentage points).

In other year-on-year comparisons, the company’s analysis found that industries most impacted by the US government shutdown have seen the largest declines in employee confidence, even when the government reopened.

Daniel Zhao, lead economist at Glassdoor, said: “November’s dip in employee confidence underscores how fragile sentiment remains even after the government reopened. Layoff headlines are weighing heavily across white‑collar industries, while sectors tied to the shutdown continue to see the steepest declines. At the same time, retail workers are showing a rare bright spot heading into the holidays, highlighting the uneven recovery across the labour market.”

Glassdoor began publishing the monthly index in the summer of 2023.

The index is based on employee ratings collected by the company, covering the share of US full-time and part-time employees who report a positive six-month business outlook for their employer. Glassdoor reweights the index to account for changes in the platform and to achieve a nationally representative mix of employee ratings by industry.