U.S. Workers Increasingly Stuck In ‘Great Detachment’ As Hiring Slows, Report Says

A new report from Gallup finds that American workers are less optimistic about the future. work climate and their level of engagement in their current job has remained relatively stable.

Gallup released its 2026 State of the Global Workplace Report on Wednesday, which showed that while 51% of workers worldwide think it’s a good time to find a quality worksentiment among American workers fell to 28% in the fourth quarter of 2025.

This figure represents a notable decline from 46% in Q4 2024, continuing a strong downward trend from 70% in Q2 2022.

“People with degrees have a particularly hard time finding jobs,” Jim Harter, chief scientist for workplace management and well-being at Gallup, told FOX Business. “So there’s kind of an interesting dynamic right now where unemployment is pretty low, it’s up slightly, but there’s no hiring.”

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The Gallup report showed a decline in engagement among American workers as well as declining engagement levels. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

“The workplace climate, just in terms of people’s freedom, makes them feel stuck where they are. Part of the solution to this problem is that organizations need to improve their ability to drive really strong performance management systems and good communication between them. managers and employees” Harter said.

When workers feel stuck and don’t have a choice to find another quality job, Harter said “their engagement will start to decline, and their active disengagement will start to increase when people don’t have a choice because they’re stuck in jobs they don’t want.”

Workers who said they were looking for a new job reported not getting much of a response, even after applying to multiple jobs, Gallup found.

“We’re finding people are applying for jobs, but they’re just not getting a lot of responses. There’s just not much out there from a hiring standpoint right now,” Harter said. “It’s just not the right time for recruiting right now and, again, unemployment is quite lowso people have jobs – but they are jobs that they do not consider high-quality jobs.

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Workers actively looking for new jobs have had a hard time getting a response, Harter said. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Harter noted that among respondents who reported having the ability to do multiple things, their perception of the work climate was more favorable.

“I think there is an important factor in terms of development related to AI this could be an important part of people finding jobs in the future,” he added.

The report’s findings also demonstrated conditions that Gallup called the “Great Detachment” in which people actively search for work or monitor openings while reporting low levels of satisfaction with their current employer.

“Even though employees have less choice in terms of leaving their employer to go elsewhere, there is psychological turnover that means they are not fully contributing to helping the organization improve,” Harter said.

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High-performing organizations have higher levels of engagement among workers, Harter noted. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The report also found that the three-year rolling average of engaged workers decreased one point to 31%, with 52% of workers not engaged and 17% actively disengaged. At 31%, the engagement level of U.S. workers is at its lowest level since 2014, while the share of actively disengaged workers, at 17%, was also at 2014 levels.

In contrast, Harter said larger organizations have 70% or more of their employees engaged, as well as committed managers to an even greater extent.

“When you look closely at the organizations that are really doing great work right now, they’re finding ways to make it happen,” he said. “They actually develop their managers, they put people in the right leadership role – it helps when you flatten out the organization and people can take greater control as managers. They help people see how their work relates to the larger goal of the organization.”

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“What we’re talking about here is very solvable, but it’s kind of an uphill battle against the tide right now where leaders have to be very intentional about what they’re doing with their people and particularly with their managers and how they’re preparing to coach people on a regular basis and help people feel like they’re a part of what the organization as a whole is trying to do,” Harter added.