Employee engagement statistics: global levels, drivers, managers and business outcomes
This page collects the engagement numbers HR teams cite most often: how many employees are engaged worldwide and in the United States, what low engagement costs, how much of it sits with the manager, and what engaged business units deliver in profit, turnover and safety. Almost all of it comes from Gallup's Q12 survey research, plus one Qualtrics study. Every figure links to the page where it appears. Last checked in September 2026.
Global engagement by year
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Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2026 report puts global employee engagement at 20 percent in 2025, its lowest level since 2020 and the second annual decline in a row (Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026). The report draws on 141,444 employed respondents in more than 140 countries.
| Year | Engaged, global | Engaged, United States |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 22% | n/a |
| 2020 | 20% | 36% (peak) |
| 2021 | 21% | n/a |
| 2022 | 23% | n/a |
| 2023 | 23% | 33% |
| 2024 | 21% | 31% (10-year low) |
| 2025 | 20% | 31% |
| 2026, first half | n/a | 31% |
Source: global column from Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026 global data summary; US column from Gallup, U.S. Employee Engagement Sinks to 10-Year Low (2025) and Gallup, Employee Engagement Remains Flat as AI Adoption Accelerates (2026). Gallup's US panel and its global World Poll use different samples, so the US column is not simply a subset of the global one.
Regional gaps are wide: the United States and Canada lead at 31 percent engaged, Europe sits at 12 percent (Gallup global data summary). No region improved in 2025 (Gallup, Global Employee Engagement Continues Decline, April 2026).
What low engagement costs
- Gallup estimates that low engagement cost the world economy approximately $10 trillion in lost productivity in 2025, or 9 percent of global GDP. Each percentage point of engagement lost represents about 21 million fewer engaged employees (Gallup, April 2026).
- The two-point drop in 2024 alone cost an estimated $438 billion in lost productivity. Gallup also estimates that a fully engaged global workforce would add $9.6 trillion in productivity (Gallup, Global Engagement Falls for the Second Time Since 2009, April 2025).
- In the United States, low engagement costs approximately $2 trillion in lost productivity. In the same mid-2025 survey, only 19 percent of employees were extremely satisfied with their employer and 51 percent were looking or keeping an eye out for openings (Gallup, Anemic Employee Engagement Points to Leadership Challenges, August 2025).
Three of the 12 survey elements drove the US decline between March 2020 and 2024: clarity of expectations fell from 56 to 46 percent strongly agreeing, someone at work cares about me from 47 to 39 percent, and someone encourages my development from 36 to 30 percent (Gallup, January 2025). By the first half of 2026 the expectations item had recovered slightly to 49 percent, still well below its 61 percent peak in 2015 (Gallup, July 2026).
Managers: where most of the variance sits
The most quoted engagement statistic is also one of the oldest still in use. In 2015 Gallup reported that managers account for at least 70 percent of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units (Gallup, Managers Account for 70% of Variance in Employee Engagement, 2015).
Managers are now disengaging faster than the people they lead. Global manager engagement fell from 30 to 27 percent in 2024 while individual contributors stayed flat at 18 percent; managers under 35 fell five points and female managers seven (Gallup, April 2025). In 2025 it dropped again, from 27 to 22 percent, against 19 percent for individual contributors (Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026 global data summary). In the organizations Gallup classes as best-practice, 79 percent of managers were engaged (Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026). Manager behavior also tracks with how new tools land: US employees whose manager actively supports the team's use of AI report 48 percent engagement, against 30 percent where the manager does not (Gallup, July 2026).
Business outcomes: the Q12 meta-analysis
Gallup's 11th meta-analysis of its Q12 survey (2024) covers 736 studies across 347 organizations, 53 industries and 90 countries, with 183,806 business units and 3,354,784 employees. It compares top-quartile and bottom-quartile business units on outcomes the organizations measured themselves, not on what employees reported. The median differences:
| Outcome | Top quartile vs bottom quartile |
|---|---|
| Absenteeism | 78% lower |
| Turnover, high-turnover organizations | 21% lower |
| Turnover, low-turnover organizations | 51% lower |
| Shrinkage (theft) | 28% lower |
| Safety incidents | 63% lower |
| Patient safety incidents | 58% lower |
| Quality defects | 32% lower |
| Customer loyalty and engagement | 10% higher |
| Productivity, sales | 18% higher |
| Productivity, production records | 14% higher |
| Profitability | 23% higher |
| Employee wellbeing (thriving) | 70% higher |
| Organizational citizenship | 22% higher |
Source: Gallup, Q12 Meta-Analysis, 11th edition (2024). Median percent differences between top-quartile and bottom-quartile business units.
The profitability and customer loyalty rows are discussed alongside the Oxford productivity study on our employee happiness statistics page.
Drivers: trust, wellbeing, friends and place of work
Trust in leadership. Only 21 percent of US employees strongly agree that they trust the leadership of their organization, down from a 24 percent peak in 2019. Where leaders communicate clearly, inspire confidence in the future and lead and support change, 95 percent fully trust them (Gallup, Why Trust in Leaders Is Faltering, 2023). In mid-2025, "leadership transparency gaps" was the second most common reason employees gave for feeling disconnected, at 29 percent, behind organizational culture at 32 percent (Gallup, August 2025).
Feeling cared about. The share of US employees who strongly agree their organization cares about their overall wellbeing peaked at 49 percent in May 2020 (Gallup, 2022) and tied a record low of 21 percent in early 2024. Employees who do strongly agree are 4.4 times as likely to be engaged, 73 percent less likely to feel burned out very often or always, and 53 percent less likely to be watching for or seeking a new job (Gallup, Despite Employer Prioritization, Employee Wellbeing Falters, November 2024).
Wellbeing. Globally, 34 percent of employees were thriving in their lives in 2025 and 40 percent felt a lot of stress the previous day (Gallup global data summary); in the US the figures are 51 and 50 percent (Gallup, US country-level data, 2026). Half of engaged employees are thriving, against a third of those who are not engaged (Gallup, April 2025).
A best friend at work. Just two in ten US employees report having a best friend at work. Gallup finds that since the pandemic the link between having one and outcomes such as likelihood to recommend the workplace, intent to leave and overall satisfaction has grown stronger (Gallup, The Increasing Importance of a Best Friend at Work, updated 2024).
Remote and hybrid. Fully remote workers are the most likely to be engaged (31 percent), against 23 percent for hybrid, 23 percent for on-site remote-capable and 19 percent for on-site non-remote-capable employees. The trade-off is wellbeing: 36 percent of fully remote workers are thriving, against 42 percent of hybrid and on-site remote-capable workers, and 57 percent of fully remote workers are actively looking or passively watching for a new job (Gallup, The Remote Work Paradox, May 2025).
Recognition and feedback. Recognition figures live on our employee recognition statistics page. On feedback, Qualtrics' 2026 study of employees in 24 countries found that 63 percent of frontline workers are concerned they have not received feedback that improves their performance, and only 44 percent of new hires intend to stay more than three years (Qualtrics, 2026 Employee Experience Trends).
Stress and burnout over time
Every year since 2009, Gallup's World Poll has asked employed adults worldwide whether they experienced stress a lot of the previous day. The share saying yes rose from 31 percent in 2009 to a peak of 44 percent in 2021 and 2022, then eased to 40 percent in 2024 and 2025 (Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026 global data summary). That is still higher than any year before 2020. The 2025 wave covered 141,444 employed respondents.
| Year | Employees who felt stress a lot of the previous day, global |
|---|---|
| 2009 | 31% |
| 2012 | 36% |
| 2015 | 39% |
| 2018 | 37% |
| 2019 | 38% |
| 2020 | 43% |
| 2021 | 44% (peak) |
| 2022 | 44% (peak) |
| 2023 | 41% |
| 2024 | 40% |
| 2025 | 40% |
Source: Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026 global data summary. Selected years from the 2009 to 2025 series; the highest year before 2020 was 39%.
This series measures daily stress, not clinical burnout. For burnout, Gallup asks US employees how often they feel burned out at work. Among US workers outside K-12 education, the share answering "very often" or "always" rose from 28 percent in March 2020 to 30 percent in February 2022. In K-12 schools it rose from 36 to 44 percent, and among teachers it reached 52 percent (Gallup, K-12 Workers Have Highest Burnout Rate in U.S., June 2022). That survey ran February 3 to 14, 2022, with 12,319 US full-time employees. Both measures are self-reported. Our mental health at work statistics page has more on workplace stress and mental health.
Company values and culture
Most large companies publish their values. Whether employees see those values lived is a separate question. Donald Sull, Stefano Turconi and Charles Sull reviewed the websites and annual reports of 689 large, mainly US organizations in 2018 and found that more than 80 percent published an official set of corporate values. For the more than 500 of these companies in the 2019 Culture 500, they compared the statements with how positively employees wrote about the same values in more than 1.2 million Glassdoor reviews. They found no correlation between the values a company emphasizes and how well it lives up to them in the eyes of employees. All of the correlations were very weak, and for four of nine values (collaboration, customer orientation, execution and diversity) they were slightly negative (MIT Sloan Management Review, When It Comes to Culture, Does Your Company Walk the Talk?, July 2020). Glassdoor reviews are volunteered, not a random sample.
Gallup's survey data shows the same gap from the inside. Few employees feel connected to their organization's culture, see colleagues committed to its values or hear from their manager how those values apply to their work. Those who do feel connected report different outcomes:
| Measure, US employees | Figure |
|---|---|
| Strongly agree they feel connected to their organization's culture (May 2026) | 20% |
| Strongly agree their coworkers are committed to the organization's cultural values | 20% |
| Strongly agree their manager explains how the organization's cultural values influence their work | 19% |
| Strongly agree leaders are committed to the organization's cultural values | 24% |
| Connected employees: likelihood of being engaged (February 2025 data) | 4.3 times as likely |
| Connected employees: watching for or looking for another job | 47% less likely |
| Connected employees: burned out very often or always | 62% less likely |
Source: Gallup, Organizational Culture indicator (2026). Gallup Panel web surveys of US adults working full or part time.
The Gallup item that asks whether employees know what their organization stands for has old data. In a survey Gallup reported in July 2012, of more than 3,000 randomly selected US workers, 41 percent strongly agreed that they know what their company stands for and what makes its brand different from competitors: 60 percent of executives, 46 percent of managers and 37 percent of other employees (Gallup, July 2012). Gallup repeated the 41 percent in 2017 (Gallup, Failed Brand Ambassadors) and 2019 (Gallup, One Employee Question That Leaders Can't Afford to Ignore) and has not published a newer percentage for this item. A related item is tracked today: the share of US employees who strongly agree that their company's mission or purpose makes them feel their job is important fell from 38 percent in March 2021 to a record low of 30 percent in February 2024 (Gallup, The Great Detachment, 2024). It was 31 percent in May 2026 (Gallup engagement indicator).
The burnout row in the table links the two sections, though the data is correlational: it shows that connected employees report less burnout and less job hunting, not that culture alone causes the gap. Our employee retention strategy guide treats culture as one of five retention areas, alongside management, pay, growth and recognition.
What the data means for small HR teams
Fix the manager before the program. With 70 percent of the variance sitting with the manager and manager engagement at 22 percent globally, a survey tool without manager follow-up measures the problem without touching it.
Start with expectations. The largest US decline since 2020 is "I know what is expected of me at work", now 49 percent. That item is set in the job description, the interview scorecard and the first-week onboarding checklist, which an applicant tracking system such as 100Hires can hold in one place so the new hire and the manager see the same criteria.
Ask new hires early. Fewer than half of new hires plan to stay three years. A 30-day and 90-day check-in catches the expectations gap while it can still be corrected. Our employee engagement guide covers survey cadence and the follow-up loop.
Treat remote as a wellbeing question. Remote staff are more engaged and less well; hybrid staff are the reverse. The fix differs by group.
Notes on the data
Gallup's global figures come from the Gallup World Poll; its US figures come from a separate US panel (the mid-2025 wave had 17,660 respondents, margin of error 1.1 points). The two series are not directly comparable, which is why Gallup's country-level page shows 32 percent for the US in 2025 while the US panel shows 31 percent. Gallup's own pages also differ on 2024: the January 2025 annual report puts US engagement at 31 percent, while an August 2025 Gallup article restates 2024 as 30 percent, an 11-year low. This page uses the annual report figure. All engagement, trust, wellbeing and best-friend figures are self-reported survey responses. The Q12 meta-analysis outcomes are the exception: absenteeism, turnover, safety, sales and profit came from the organizations' own records. The 70 percent variance figure dates from 2015. Cost-of-disengagement figures are Gallup model estimates, not measured losses.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of employees are engaged? Gallup puts global engagement at 20 percent for 2025 and US engagement at 31 percent, unchanged in the first half of 2026. Europe is the lowest region at 12 percent.
How much does low engagement cost? Roughly $10 trillion a year globally, about 9 percent of GDP, and about $2 trillion in the United States, by Gallup's estimates.
How much do managers matter? At least 70 percent of the variance in team engagement is explained by the manager. Manager engagement itself fell from 30 percent in 2023 to 22 percent in 2025.
What do engaged teams deliver? Top-quartile business units show 23 percent higher profitability, 78 percent lower absenteeism, 63 percent fewer safety incidents and 21 to 51 percent lower turnover than bottom-quartile units.
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