U.S. Worker Thriving Declines as Job Market Pessimism Grows

New Gallup data confirm that the personal and professional environment of U.S. workers was worse at the end of 2025 than at any point in the past three years across several important metrics. For the first time since Gallup began tracking the life evaluation of the U.S. workforce, more workers report struggling in their lives (49%) than thriving (46%): a stark reversal from 2022 and 2023 when more than half of employees were classified as thriving. This is coupled with U.S. worker engagement dropping to the lowest level on record in the past decade at 31% engaged employees.

Similar trends cut across multiple dimensions of economic perceptions. Confidence in the job market has collapsed to a new low, with just 28% of workers saying now is a good time to find a quality job, down from 70% in mid-2022. More than half of workers are actively looking for a new job or at least watching for opportunities. And nearly half of those actively searching report it has been a negative experience, with many unable to land an interview.

Some workers are feeling the strain more acutely than others. The life thriving rate of federal workers has decreased 12 percentage points on average since 2022. For the first time in the past three years, college-educated workers are the most pessimistic about the job market, and younger workers are more likely than older ones to say it is a bad time to find a good quality job.

The data point to a workforce that is restless but largely stuck. Many workers who want to leave cite economic constraints — from pay and benefits to the difficulty of finding a comparable role — as the primary barriers to making a move. With life evaluation at a record low and job market confidence near historic lows, the conditions weighing on U.S. workers show few signs of easing.

More U.S. Workers Struggling Than Thriving

For the first time since Gallup began measuring the life evaluation of the American workforce, more U.S. workers are struggling in their lives (49%) than thriving (46%). This contrasts with 2022 and 2023, when the reverse was true, with the share of U.S. employees considered “thriving” staying in the low-to-mid 50s — a mark of relative resilience after pandemic disruptions. After staying steady between 57% and 60% from 2009 to 2019, the thriving rate among workers fell to 55% in 2020 before rebounding in 2021 then steadily decreasing after that.

The latest results are from Gallup’s Q4 2025 survey of U.S. workers, conducted Oct. 30 through Nov. 13. Gallup’s measure of thriving is based on its Life Evaluation Index, which summarizes how respondents evaluate their current life and their anticipated life five years from now on a 10-point scale. In addition to those who met the standard for thriving and struggling, 5% of workers were suffering in 2025.

The slide in workers’ thriving rate has been gradual but consistent. No quarter since early 2024 has shown sustained improvement — meaning back-to-back quarters when the thriving rate increased. The 46% thriving rate in Q4 2025 is the lowest in Gallup’s trended worker data compared with Q1 2022 when 53% of employees were thriving.

The significance to organizations and the economy is real given that worker wellbeing has a tangible impact on organizations’ bottom line. Gallup research finds that workers who are not thriving are more likely to miss work due to illness and to be seeking or watching for a new job. Thriving employees miss 53% fewer days of work due to health problems and are 32% less likely to be actively seeking a new job. As thriving falls, organizational performance risks follow.

Federal Workers’ Thriving Dips

All major segments of the U.S. workforce experienced a worsening outlook on their lives since 2022; however, federal government employees stand out for the severity and speed of their decline.

In 2022, federal workers were significantly more likely than the average U.S. worker to be thriving, with their average of 60% thriving rate four points above state and local government workers and six points above the overall worker average of 54%. By 2025, federal workers’ thriving rate fell 12 points to an average of 48%, far outpacing the drops in state and local government workers’ combined thriving rate (down six points to 50%) and the average for American workers (down six points to 48%).

The steepest portion of the federal decline came most recently. While federal worker thriving held relatively steady between 2022 and 2024, it fell sharply in 2025, converging with state and local government workers for the first time in the trend. Thriving levels decreased across federal workers of all political party affiliations.

The pattern suggests the forces behind the decline in federal worker thriving rates are unique to the federal environment in the recent period. A 2024 Gallup report identified engagement stagnation in federal agencies following the pandemic, with unclear role expectations and trust in leadership as key factors in retention.

Shaken Job Market Confidence

The downturn in U.S. workers’ thriving since 2022 has unfolded alongside worsening perceptions of the U.S. job market. In Q4 2025, 28% of U.S. employees said now is a “good time” to find a quality job, with 72% calling it a bad time. This marks a dramatic reversal from mid-2022, when nearly 70% of workers were optimistic. The 42-point decline since then represents the largest collapse in job market confidence Gallup has recorded in the past four years.

The shift has meaningful implications for employers. In a strong labor market, dissatisfied employees leave their organizations. In a tighter market, those corrections can be stalled. When workers cannot, or believe they cannot, leave, discontent can accumulate inside organizations rather than being corrected with turnover. This can create a quieter but more persistent drag on productivity, morale and culture.

College-Educated and Younger Workers Most Pessimistic

Workers with higher levels of formal education were markedly less optimistic about the job market in 2025 than those with less schooling. This finding could reflect white-collar hiring slowdowns and layoffs in professional sectors.

Greater pessimism about the job market among higher-educated workers is a new pattern in the trend. Up until 2024, workers with undergraduate or more advanced college degrees had been slightly more optimistic about the job market than their less-educated peers, but that relationship reversed sharply in 2025. By Q4 2025, just 19% of college-educated workers said now is a good time to find a quality job, compared with 35% of workers without a college degree, a 16-point gap.

Younger workers today are more pessimistic about the job market than older workers. One in five workers aged 18-34 say now is a good time, compared with 41% of those 65 and older. Baby boomers (42%) and Generation X workers (33%) are significantly more optimistic than millennials (24%) and Generation Z workers (19%) in 2025.

Younger Workers Most Likely to Be Looking

Turnover intent has held near its highest level since Gallup began tracking in 2015. In Q4 2025, 51% of U.S. employees said they were either actively looking for a new job (11%) or watching for opportunities (40%). Fewer than half of the U.S. workforce said they were not looking at all. Since 2015, active or potential job seekers ranged from a low of 42% in 2018 to a high of 52% in Q3 2025.

The gradient in job-seeking by age is steep. More than three in five Gen Z workers (17% actively seeking and 44% watching) are at some level of risk of leaving their employer. Millennials are similarly restless, with 13% actively seeking and 44% watching. By contrast, only 4% of baby boomers are actively looking, and 74% say they are not looking at all.

This generational divide aligns with the broader conditions of what Gallup has called the Great Detachment — a period in which workers are seeking new opportunities at the highest rate since 2015, while engagement has fallen to decade lows, and job market conditions are too weak to support easy transitions. Younger workers, more likely to be in roles lacking clarity of expectations, recognition, and developmental support, have the most to gain from a change and the most frustration with staying.

What's Pushing Workers to Look? Pay, Growth, Leadership

Among workers who are actively looking or watching for opportunities, 56% say the reason they are looking for a new job is that they are hoping to find something better or different. Just over two in five (44%) say they are looking because they are dissatisfied with some elements of their current job.

No matter whether workers are motivated by dissatisfaction or improvement elsewhere, the top cited reason for looking is pay or benefits (69% of workers who are looking for something better and 53% of workers who are dissatisfied). More opportunities to grow and advance is the second most-cited reason for job-seeking behavior. However, when it comes to those who are motivated by dissatisfaction, 27% say leadership or management is a top three problem in their current role.

Why Workers Stay: The Economics of Inertia

Intent isn’t always sufficient for change. About 30% of all U.S. workers in Q4 2025 agree or strongly agree that they “feel stuck” in their current job. A larger share (43%) report they remain in their current role primarily because leaving would be too difficult or costly.

When workers who feel the cost of leaving is too high are asked what specifically makes leaving difficult, their answers are overwhelmingly economic. Nearly seven in 10 (69%) cite their inability to afford to lose their current pay or benefits. More than half (51%) say it would be hard to find a comparable job. A substantial share (36%) depend on their current schedule or flexibility arrangements.

Among U.S. workers who are actively pursuing new positions, many find the job search environment inhospitable. Nearly half (49%) rate their job search experience as very or somewhat negative versus just 26% who say it has been positive. More than half of those who applied for at least one job in the past 30 days report not securing a single interview. The job market is not just perceived as difficult — it is proving to be so in practice.

Bottom Line

The Q4 2025 data capture the growing struggles of the U.S. workforce. The percentage of workers who are thriving in their lives has hit a low. The decline is especially pronounced with federal workers among whom the percentage thriving fell about 12 points since 2022, including 10 points over a two-year period. At the same time, confidence in the job market has dropped, and many workers are at least considering leaving their current role.

What makes this moment distinct is not just the scale of discontent, but the conditions that surround it. Workers who want to leave largely cannot — constrained by economics, a cooling labor market and the difficulty of finding anything comparable to what they have. The result is a workforce that is restless but largely immobile, with job watching increasingly concentrated among younger workers who are still in the early stages of their careers.

For leaders and managers, this poses a significant risk to performance. Declining engagement and thriving have well-documented effects on productivity, retention and customer outcomes. Identifying and addressing potential root causes, such as clarity of expectations, meaningful recognition and work’s impact on wellbeing, represents both the challenge and the opportunity faced in 2026.