The share of employees reporting a positive six-month business outlook declined by 4.9 percentage points in February – a drop of 7.3 percentage points year-on-year, according to Glassdoor.

February’s confidence level was the lowest recorded by Glassdoor since it started tracking the data in 2016.

The company attributed the decline to rising economic uncertainty putting more pressures on workers, with employees stretched thin.

The research suggests an increase in anxiety over job security; February saw a slight increase in mentions of ‘layoffs’ in Glassdoor reviews – up 0.3% month-over-month – taking the volume of layoff mentions to their highest level since July 2020. This measure was 5% higher than February 2024.

Glassdoor has been collecting data on employee sentiment since 2016 and started publishing its monthly employee confidence index in 2023.

The government and public administration sector saw the biggest decline in employee confidence, according to Glassdoor’s data, with a year-on-year drop of 7.3%. fell 4.9 percentage points month-over-month, bringing the total decline over the last year to 7.3 percentage points. Glassdoor attributed the drop to federal cuts to the government workforce initiated by the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).

Daniel Zhao, lead economist, Glassdoor, said: “February’s drop in employee confidence to a record low is a clear indication of the mounting economic uncertainties that employees are facing. The  significant decline in the government and public administration sector is particularly concerning, as it highlights the widespread anxiety about job security and the future of the federal workforce.

“The increase in mentions of layoffs in Glassdoor reviews  further emphasises the stress that employees are experiencing, whether they are worried about losing their jobs or dealing with the aftermath of previous layoffs.”

The index is based on Glassdoor reviewers’ employee ratings of their employers’ six-month business outlook (rated as “positive”, “neutral” or “negative”) each month.

The index is the share of US full-time and part-time employees who report a positive six-month business outlook for their employer, and is reweighted to account for changes in the platform and by industry to match a nationally representative mix of employee ratings by industry.