Employee Confidence Just Hit an All-Time Low in April
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The tech sector remains the hardest hit. Information technology workers saw confidence fall 9.7 percentage points year-over-year, landing at just 44.9% in April, a clear signal that workers inside tech companies haven’t found stability despite all the AI investment headlines. From the outside, the sector looks like a growth story. From the inside, repeated restructuring and AI-driven layoffs have kept employee sentiment depressed for nearly two years. The sectors tied to energy costs diverged sharply: energy, mining, and utilities actually improved (+3.1 points year-over-year) as higher oil prices boost domestic producer prospects, while transportation, logistics, hotels, and travel accommodation saw some of the steepest declines. Management consulting, HR and staffing, media, and retail also weakened; notable because those industries tend to act as early signals of broader hiring slowdowns.
Entry-level workers experienced the largest monthly drop in April, continuing a pattern we’ve tracked all year: the workers least established in the labor market are absorbing the most uncertainty. Senior employees remain the most pessimistic compared to a year ago, suggesting leadership teams are increasingly worried about economic and geopolitical volatility heading into H2.
For employers managing retention right now: lower confidence creates both risk and opportunity. Workers become more reluctant to leave, which sounds good, but quiet disengagement is expensive. The companies that communicate clearly about their direction and actively invest in their people during periods of uncertainty are the ones that come out of it with stronger workforces. For job seekers, the environment rewards preparation. Candidates with specialized skills and clear evidence of business impact are still moving in this market, even when overall confidence is low.
Small Business Optimism Is Stable, But the Details Underneath Aren’t
The NFIB’s April 2026 Small Business Optimism Index rose just 0.1 points to 95.9, technically an improvement, but still below the 52-year historical average of 98.0 for the second consecutive month. The Uncertainty Index fell 4 points to 88, but remains well above its historical average of 68. As NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg put it: “Inflationary pressures continue to be a challenge for Main Street.”
The hiring picture is softening. The NFIB Employment Index fell from 101.6 to 100.4 for the second consecutive month, now below the 2025 average of 101.2. Small businesses have been the dominant engine of job creation all year, and this cooling bears watching. Yet the talent shortage hasn’t eased: 34% of owners reported unfilled positions, still well above the historical average of 24%, and 87% of those hiring found few or no qualified applicants. Labor quality remained the single most important problem for 18% of owners, above its 12% historical norm.
The financial picture is where the real pressure shows. Owners raising prices rose 5 points to a net 30%, more than double the historical average of 13%, and 27% plan further increases in the next three months. Short-term borrowing rates climbed to 8.3%. Regular borrowing activity dropped to its lowest since November 2021. Only 7% of owners said it’s a good time to expand, the lowest since October 2024 and the fourth consecutive monthly decline in business condition expectations. 64% reported supply chain disruptions.
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Top Earners Now Make 6.4 Times What the Lowest-Paid Workers Make and the Gap Keeps Growing
A new analysis from ADP Research, drawn from payroll data covering nearly 14 million U.S. private-sector job-stayers, shows the income divide in the American workforce continues to widen, even as wage growth remains relatively healthy across income groups.
The trajectory is consistent and concerning. In April 2023, top earners made 590% of what the lowest earners made. By April 2024, that grew to 600%. April 2025: nearly 620%. April 2026: over 640%. High-income workers now earn more than 6.4 times the wages of the lowest-paid workers, near the highest level in ADP’s data going back to 2019.
The counterintuitive part: lower-wage workers are actually seeing faster percentage-based raises. Workers in the bottom income quartile saw 6.3% year-over-year pay growth in April, compared to 3.7% for the top quartile. But faster percentages on a much smaller base don’t close the dollar gap, they just slow its widening. The pandemic briefly changed this dynamic as labor shortages in retail, hospitality, and frontline work drove significant pay jumps for lower-wage workers. That momentum has now flattened.
The economic implication ADP flags is worth paying attention to. Lower-income households spend a larger share of their earnings than higher-income ones. As income concentrates at the top, consumer spending growth can weaken over time. For employers, this creates a retention and engagement challenge that raises alone may not solve. Workers compare themselves less to inflation data and more to what they observe happening around them. When the gap between their raises and executive compensation feels visible, dissatisfaction rises even during periods of nominal wage growth.
Frequently Asked Questions
It measures the share of U.S. employees who report a positive six-month business outlook for their employer, based on ratings submitted to Glassdoor each month. It provides a real-time view of worker sentiment before labor market shifts fully appear in government data. April 2026’s reading of 43.8% is the lowest since the index launched in 2016.
Inflation, rising borrowing costs, and weakening sales expectations are the primary drivers. Short-term borrowing rates hit 8.3% in April, expansion plans fell to their lowest since October 2024, and business condition expectations have declined four consecutive months. Hiring demand remains, but confidence in future growth keeps sliding.
Because faster percentage increases applied to a much smaller base still produce a wider dollar gap. A 6.3% raise for a low-wage worker and a 3.7% raise for a high-wage worker both grow the dollar difference when starting salaries are far apart. ADP’s data shows pandemic-era wage gains for frontline workers have largely flattened, and pre-COVID structural inequality has resumed.
Tech saw the largest year-over-year decline, down 9.7 percentage points to 44.9%. Transportation, logistics, hotels, and travel accommodation also dropped sharply due to energy price increases. Energy, mining, and utilities was one of the few sectors to improve.
