Fewer Than 3 in 10 Workers Are Engaged, and Fewer Know What Their Job Expects
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U.S. employee engagement fell to 29% in the third quarter of 2026, the lowest reading since 2011 and down 2 points from 31% in the second quarter. The other 71% of workers split into 53% not engaged and 18% actively disengaged, up from 17%. The survey reached 21,648 U.S. adults between August 5 and 19.
Each percentage point represents about 1.6 million U.S. employees, so the 2-point drop means about 3.2 million fewer engaged workers in a single quarter. The total decline since the 2020 peak of 36% is about 11 million engaged workers.
Two measures fell along with engagement. Only 46% of workers strongly agree they know what is expected of them at work, down from 49% in the first half of 2026 and well below the 2015 high of 61%. Only 37% strongly agree that someone at work cares about them as a person, down from 40% and below the March 2020 peak of 47%.
The sharpest drops came among workers who can do their jobs remotely. Engagement fell 5 points among fully remote employees and 2 points among hybrid employees, compared with about 1 point among on-site workers. The remote and hybrid declines exceeded the margin of error, and the on-site change did not.
AI adds a wrinkle. A July analysis found engagement 6 points higher at organizations that adopted AI, 15 points higher where leaders communicated a clear AI plan, and 18 points higher where managers actively supported AI use. With all three in place, engagement reached 53%. By the third quarter, the AI advantage for fully remote employees shrank from 5 points to 2, and for hybrid employees from 8 points to 2. On-site workers kept an edge of about 4 to 5 points.
The number I’d focus on is 46%. Fewer than half of workers strongly agree they know what their job expects of them, and engagement starts there.
AI makes that gap wider when it arrives without a plan. A company rolls out new tools, the job changes quietly, and nobody tells the remote employee what the new version of the job looks like. The manager who would normally fill in the blanks is not down the hall. The survey shows a pattern and cannot prove that AI caused the drop, but the pattern points to communication and manager support.
The fix is basic management. Tell people what is changing, what you expect now, and how you will measure it. Equip managers to have that conversation, especially the ones leading remote and hybrid teams, and track AI’s effect on productivity next to engagement.
Disengaged employees are the easiest people in the market to recruit away, and companies that skip this step should expect to lose some of them. If you’re hiring to replace people who left or to build a team that stays, talk to us about hiring.
Ghosting Mentions Are Up 197% Since 2019, but Complaints About Employer Silence Rose 24%
Candidates who land an interview are still getting ghosted at close to record levels. Glassdoor Chief Economist Daniel Zhao analyzed about 2.4 million U.S. interview reviews submitted from January 1, 2016, through September 30, 2026. Mentions of ghosting have climbed since before the pandemic, leveled off since mid-2025, and were still up 2% year over year as of September 2026.
Zhao is careful about what the climb means. Yearly mentions of the word “ghosting” nearly tripled (up 197%) since 2019, but complaints about employer silence in general rose 24%, from 6.2% of interview reviews in 2019 to 7.7% in 2026. Most of that increase came in 2025 (up 14% year over year) and 2026 (up 5% so far). In 2019, 23% of reviews that complained about employer silence used the word ghosting, compared with 56% in 2026. Zhao says the behavior is older than the word.
The occupation data holds some irony. Candidates interviewing for recruiter and HR specialist roles are 1.9 times more likely than the average reviewer to mention ghosting, at 8.1% and 8.0% against a 4.2% average across all occupations in 2025 and 2026. Social media managers lead the list at 11.1% (2.6 times the average), followed by communications associates at 9.1% (2.2 times), marketing associates at 9.0%, UI/UX designers at 8.9%, and graphic designers at 8.8%. Zhao adds that employers ghost social media managers “at their own peril,” since a poor interview experience can go viral.
Reviewers describe the frustration in plain terms. An accounting manager wrote that a rejection takes “all of 60 seconds” to send. A sales associate who interviewed twice and was then ghosted wrote that they used to like the brand and no longer want to step into the store.
Ghosting is a decision. A company that interviews someone twice and then goes silent has decided the candidate’s time does not matter, and candidates read it exactly that way. The cost shows up in places companies do not track. The sales associate went from liking a brand to avoiding its store over a single hiring process.
In a slow hiring market, every opening draws more applicants, which means more people to turn down and more chances to lose goodwill. A rejection takes a minute to write, and many applicant tracking systems can send one automatically. The data covers candidates interviewing for recruiter and HR roles, so it describes how hiring teams in those functions treat applicants, and it leaves hiring teams elsewhere with little excuse. Any company that interviews people should give every finalist an answer. If your team is too stretched to follow up with every candidate, our staffing services can take that work off your plate.
Staffing your team doesn’t have to be hard.
Reach out and see how we can help.
Only 1.2% of LinkedIn Members List an AI Skill, and Postings Asking for AI Literacy Are More Than 10 Times Their 2023 Level
LinkedIn launched LinkedIn Pulse, which replaces the LinkedIn Economic Graph site, and its first release says opportunity is emerging around AI skills and starting a business even as hiring stays slow in many places. Pulse draws on data from 1.4 billion members, 71 million companies, and 42,000 skills.
LinkedIn estimates that AI has helped create roughly 2 million new jobs. From July through September 2026, AI Engineer ranked among the 10 fastest-growing occupations in seven major economies, including the United States, and entry-level hiring for AI Engineers grew 68% year over year in the U.S.
Workers outside AI jobs benefit too. The share of job postings requiring AI literacy skills is now more than 10 times the 2023 rate, and employers want those skills in marketing, design, project management, administration, and writing. LinkedIn members who list AI literacy skills are 78% more likely to get hired and 11% more likely to receive a promotion than members who do not. In the U.S., workers with AI skills move into occupations that pay an average of $28,000 more than the occupations entered by workers without them. Only 1.2% of LinkedIn members list an AI skill today.
Entrepreneurship is the other bright spot. Founder ranked among the 10 fastest-growing roles in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, and India from July through September 2026. Globally, founders are 12 times more likely than the average member to have an AI skill, and 4 in 10 professionals say AI made them more likely to start a business. Founders who launched startups in 2024 employed 26% fewer people after their first year than founders who launched in 2021, and LinkedIn says its data does not show that technology caused the smaller teams.
Access is uneven. Women account for about one quarter of new AI hires, and more than 90% of AI roles in 2025 went to workers with at least a bachelor’s degree.
The number I’d focus on is 1.2%. Members who list AI literacy are 78% more likely to get hired, and almost nobody lists it. Few opportunities in the job market are this easy to see and this underused. Read the 78% and the $28,000 as patterns. Members who list AI skills may differ from other members in ways the data cannot capture, and the $28,000 compares the average pay of the occupations people moved into, which does not describe a raise any individual received.
If you’re looking for work, learn how AI fits into the work you already do and then show it. A marketer who can explain how they use AI to produce campaigns faster stands out to a hiring manager more than one who lists a tool name under skills.
Employers should take the 90% degree number seriously. ZipRecruiter found that 54.7% of entry-level workers are teaching themselves AI, so a default bachelor’s requirement on AI-related roles can screen out people who have already built the skill. Ask what the degree adds to the job, and look at candidates who can show finished AI work.
Jobless Claims Slip to 194,000, and the 4-Week Average Hits a 12-Month Low
Initial jobless claims were 194,000 for the week ending October 24, down 1,000 from the prior week’s revised 195,000, according to the Department of Labor. It is the lowest weekly figure since the week ending July 18, when claims came in at 189,000. A year ago the number was 221,000, so claims are about 12% lower.
The 4-week average, which smooths out one-week swings, fell 1,250 to 196,750. It is the lowest reading in the 12 months of data in the release, and the second week in a row it set a new low.
Continuing claims fell 21,000 to 1,701,000 for the week ending October 17. Last week’s report showed continuing claims at their highest since late August, and this week reverses that jump, with the prior week’s 1,728,000 revised down to 1,722,000. A year ago the figure was 1,953,000, so about 252,000 fewer people are collecting benefits now. The insured unemployment rate held at 1.1%.
State figures show where the movement came from. For the week ending October 24, New York posted the largest advance increase at 2,854, followed by Texas (up 1,353) and California (up 1,315), while Michigan had the largest decrease (down 1,783), followed by Tennessee (down 988). For the week ending October 17, Michigan reported the largest increase, up 1,906, and cited layoffs in manufacturing, and Ohio reported the largest decrease, down 4,478, citing fewer manufacturing layoffs.
Employers still are not letting people go. If you have a job, your odds of losing it are about as low as they have been all year. Getting hired is the hard part. When companies hold on to the people they have and add new ones slowly, there are fewer openings for everyone else. Low claims mean employers are keeping their people, which job seekers should not confuse with an easy job market.
Continuing claims are still the number I’d keep watching. Last week’s jump had me looking for people taking longer to find new jobs, and it did not hold, which is a good sign for this week.
Sources
Gallup, U.S. Employee Engagement Below 30% for First Time in 15 Years, by Jim Harter, October 28, 2026
Glassdoor, Conversation starter: Ghosting holds near record highs, by Daniel Zhao, October 29, 2026
LinkedIn Corporate Communications, LinkedIn data shows where opportunity is emerging as work changes, October 27, 2026
U.S. Department of Labor, Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims, October 29, 2026
