80% employees are not enthusiastic about their jobs: New report shows engagement at work drops to COVID levels

Just one in five workers around the world feels genuinely engaged and enthusiastic about their job, according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace: 2026 report. Based on surveys across more than 140 countries, the report found that employee engagement fell to 20% in 2025—the lowest level since 2020 and the first back-to-back annual decline since Gallup began tracking the metric.

The figure is down from a peak of 23% in 2022. While the three-percentage-point decline may appear modest, Gallup estimates that each percentage point represents roughly 21 million workers globally, meaning tens of millions fewer employees now feel psychologically invested in their work.

Gallup defines engagement as more than job satisfaction or happiness. It measures whether employees are psychologically committed to their work and motivated to contribute.


The report found that:

• 20% of workers were engaged.
• 64% were not engaged, meaning they were doing the minimum required.
• 16% were actively disengaged, indicating they were unhappy at work and could negatively affect colleagues.

What is the impact?
Gallup estimates that low employee engagement costs the global economy around $10 trillion annually in lost productivity—equivalent to nearly 10% of global GDP. The estimate is based on the performance gap between organisations with highly engaged workforces and those with lower engagement levels.

Managers drove the decline

The report found that the biggest drop came from managers. Their engagement fell from 27% in 2024 to 22% in 2025, marking the sharpest single-year decline and extending a nine-percentage-point fall since 2022.

Managers have traditionally reported higher engagement than the employees they supervise, but that advantage has narrowed significantly.

Gallup CEO Jon Clifton said managers also play a key role in the successful adoption of artificial intelligence at work.

"In organizations investing in AI, the strongest predictor of employee adoption, aside from technical integration, is whether their direct manager actively champions it," Clifton said.

He added, "Even the most sophisticated neural network cannot overcome an indifferent team leader."

Despite lower workplace engagement, overall wellbeing showed modest improvement. The share of people classified as "thriving" in their lives rose by one percentage point to 34%, the first increase in three years.

However, workplace stress remained elevated, with 40% of workers saying they experienced significant stress the previous day.

Engagement can improve

Gallup noted that the decline is not inevitable. In organisations it classifies as following best management practices, 79% of managers were engaged—nearly four times the global average.

The report concludes that while it measures the scale of disengagement and identifies managers as the group experiencing the steepest decline, improving employee engagement will require organisations to address the underlying workplace factors that influence motivation, leadership and day-to-day work experience.