Employee Engagement Statistics 2026

How to read this page: every figure names its source and year. Survey results, official statistics, vendor claims and figures from our own directory are labeled separately, because they are not equally reliable.

How engaged are employees worldwide?

Gallup's State of the Global Workplace is based on the Gallup World Poll, with 263,810 respondents in 2025, of whom 141,444 were employed.

1. 20% of employees worldwide were engaged at work in 2025, down from a peak of 23% in 2022, according to Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2026.Source: Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026 (report page), 2025Survey
2. Globally, 64% of employees were not engaged and 16% were actively disengaged in 2025.Source: Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026, 2025Survey
3. Gallup estimates that low engagement cost the world economy about $10 trillion in lost productivity in 2025, or 9% of global GDP.Source: Gallup, Global Employee Engagement Continues Decline (2026), 2025Survey
4. Each percentage point of global engagement represents about 21 million employees, per Gallup's 2026 analysis.Source: Gallup, Global Employee Engagement Continues Decline (2026), 2025Survey
5. Engagement ranged from 31% in the U.S. and Canada and 30% in Latin America and the Caribbean to 12% in Europe in Gallup's 2026 regional data.Source: Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026, 2025Survey
6. U.S. engagement fell to 29% in Q3 2026, its lowest level since 2011, with 18% of employees actively disengaged (Gallup Panel, 21,648 adults).Source: Gallup, U.S. Employee Engagement Below 30% for First Time in 15 Years (2026), 2026Survey
7. Only 37% of U.S. employees strongly agreed in Q3 2026 that a supervisor or someone at work cares about them as a person, down from a peak of 47% in March 2020.Source: Gallup, U.S. Employee Engagement Below 30% for First Time in 15 Years (2026), 2026Survey
8. Fully remote (37%) and hybrid (36%) U.S. employees were more engaged than on-site employees (30%) in May 2024 (Gallup Panel, 21,543 employees).Source: Gallup, Employee Wellbeing Hinges on Management, Not Work Mode (2024), 2024Survey

How engaged are employees in Europe?

Europe has the lowest engagement of any Gallup region, but European workers score better than average on daily negative emotions. Eurofound and Eurostat add official data on support and working conditions.

1. 12% of employees in Europe were engaged at work in Gallup's 2026 report, the lowest of the 10 world regions Gallup tracks.Source: Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026, 2025Survey
2. 49% of European employees were thriving in their overall lives in 2025, fourth highest of 10 regions and above the global figure of 34%.Source: Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026, 2025Survey
3. 13% of European employees reported daily loneliness in 2025, compared with 22% globally.Source: Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026, 2025Survey
4. 73% of workers in Europe say they always or mostly get support from colleagues, while 64% of men and 65% of women say the same about their managers (Eurofound EWCS 2024).Source: Eurofound, Trends in Job Quality: EWCS 2024 First Findings, 2024Official statistics
5. 16% of European workers rarely or never receive support from their manager, twice the 8% who rarely or never get support from colleagues (Eurofound EWCS 2024).Source: Eurofound, Trends in Job Quality: EWCS 2024 First Findings, 2024Official statistics
6. 85% of workers in the 2024 European Working Conditions Survey feel fairly treated, and more than 80% believe their work is useful (36,644 interviews in 35 countries).Source: Eurofound, EWCS 2024 press release (April 2026), 2024Official statistics
7. 44.6% of employed people aged 15 to 64 in the EU reported exposure to risk factors for mental wellbeing at work in 2020, ranging from 76.4% in Sweden to 25.8% in Germany.Source: Eurostat, Self-reported work-related health problems and risk factors, 2020Official statistics

How common are stress and burnout at work?

1. 40% of employees worldwide reported daily stress in 2025, unchanged from 2024 and above pre-pandemic levels.Source: Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026, 2025Survey
2. 39% of European employees reported daily stress in 2025, close to the global 40% and well below the 50% in the U.S. and Canada.Source: Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026, 2025Survey
3. Managers report more daily stress than individual contributors: 45% versus 39% globally in 2025.Source: Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026, 2025Survey
4. 44% of workers in the EU, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland report severe time pressure or work overload, rising to 50% in health and social care (EU-OSHA OSH Pulse 2025, more than 28,000 workers).Source: EU-OSHA, OSH Pulse 2025 press release, 2025Official statistics
5. 48% of European workers believe that disclosing a mental health condition could harm their career, per EU-OSHA's OSH Pulse 2025.Source: EU-OSHA, OSH Pulse 2025 press release, 2025Official statistics
6. 29% of European workers are unaware of workplace measures to combat occupational stress (Eurofound EWCS 2024).Source: Eurofound, EWCS 2024 press release (April 2026), 2024Official statistics
7. 46% of knowledge workers said they feel burned out and 68% said they struggle with the pace and volume of work, in Microsoft's 2024 survey of 31,000 workers in 31 markets.Source: Microsoft and LinkedIn Work Trend Index 2024, 2024Survey
8. Employees who are very often or always burned out are 63% more likely to take a sick day and nearly three times as likely to leave their employer, in a Gallup study of nearly 7,500 full-time U.S. employees.Source: Gallup, Millennials Are Burning Out (2018), 2018Study

How much do managers shape engagement?

1. Gallup reports that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units.Source: Gallup, Managers Account for 70% of Variance in Employee Engagement (2015), 2015Study
2. Only 22% of managers worldwide were engaged in 2025, down from 27% in 2024 and 31% in 2022.Source: Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026 (report page), 2025Survey
3. In a Gallup study of 7,272 U.S. adults, one in two had left a job to get away from their manager at some point in their career.Source: Gallup, Managers Account for 70% of Variance in Employee Engagement (2015), 2015Survey
4. Employees whose managers hold regular meetings with them are almost three times as likely to be engaged, according to Gallup.Source: Gallup, Managers Account for 70% of Variance in Employee Engagement (2015), 2015Survey
5. 58% of U.S. managers were watching for or actively seeking a new job in August 2026.Source: Gallup, Global Indicator: Leadership & Management, 2026Survey
6. Frontline supervisors promoted for supervisory skills or experience were 42% engaged, compared with 31% for those promoted for performance or frontline tenure (Gallup, May 2025).Source: Gallup, When Good Frontline Workers Make Bad Supervisors (2026), 2025Survey
7. U.S. employees who strongly agreed that leadership communicates effectively were 61% less likely to feel burned out (Gallup, May 2026).Source: Gallup, How Can Organizations Improve Leadership Communication? (2026), 2026Survey

What does recognition do for engagement and retention?

1. Only 22% of U.S. employees said in 2024 that they get the right amount of recognition, unchanged from 2022 (Gallup and Workhuman).Source: Gallup, Employee Retention Depends on Getting Recognition Right (2024), 2024Survey
2. Employees who received high-quality recognition were 45% less likely to have changed organizations two years later, in Gallup and Workhuman research tracking nearly 3,500 employees from 2022 to 2024.Source: Gallup, Employee Retention Depends on Getting Recognition Right (2024), 2024Study
3. Employees whose recognition met at least four of Gallup's five recognition pillars were 65% less likely to be looking or watching for a new job than those receiving lower-quality recognition (2024).Source: Gallup, Employee Retention Depends on Getting Recognition Right (2024), 2024Survey
4. 55% of U.S. employees receive no recognition or recognition that meets none of the five pillars Gallup and Workhuman define (2024).Source: Gallup, Employee Retention Depends on Getting Recognition Right (2024), 2024Survey
5. 41% of EU workers in health and social care say their efforts are insufficiently recognized or rewarded (EU-OSHA OSH Pulse 2025).Source: EU-OSHA, OSH Pulse 2025 press release, 2025Official statistics
6. 30% of women and 24% of men in Europe report an effort-reward imbalance at work (Eurofound EWCS 2024).Source: Eurofound, Trends in Job Quality: EWCS 2024 First Findings, 2024Official statistics

What does turnover cost, and what does engagement change?

Replacement-cost figures are rules of thumb. Neither Gallup nor SHRM publishes a detailed method for them on the pages cited, so use them as ranges, not precise costs.

1. Gallup estimates the cost of replacing an employee at one-half to two times the employee's annual salary, which it calls a conservative estimate; the page does not describe the method.Source: Gallup, This Fixable Problem Costs U.S. Businesses $1 Trillion (2019), 2019Vendor claim
2. Gallup puts replacement costs at about 200% of salary for leaders and managers, 80% for technical roles and 40% for frontline employees (2024).Source: Gallup, Employee Retention Depends on Getting Recognition Right (2024), 2024Vendor claim
3. A SHRM Executive Network article puts the cost of replacing an employee at 50% to 200% of annual salary depending on level, and links to SHRM's turnover cost calculation spreadsheet rather than a study.Source: SHRM Executive Network, The Myth of Replaceability (2025), 2025Vendor claim
4. Gallup estimates that voluntary turnover costs U.S. businesses $1 trillion a year.Source: Gallup, This Fixable Problem Costs U.S. Businesses $1 Trillion (2019), 2019Vendor claim
5. 52% of voluntarily exiting employees say their manager or organization could have done something to prevent them from leaving, according to Gallup.Source: Gallup, This Fixable Problem Costs U.S. Businesses $1 Trillion (2019), 2019Survey
6. Teams in the top quartile of engagement show 23% higher profitability, 18% higher sales productivity and 78% lower absenteeism than bottom-quartile teams, in Gallup's 2024 meta-analysis of 183,806 business units in 347 organizations.Source: Gallup, Employee Engagement and Productivity (2024 Q12 meta-analysis), 2024Study
7. Top-quartile engagement is associated with 21% lower turnover in high-turnover organizations and 51% lower turnover in low-turnover organizations (Gallup 2024 meta-analysis).Source: Gallup, Employee Engagement and Productivity (2024 Q12 meta-analysis), 2024Study
8. IMARC Group values the global employee engagement software market at $1,195.1 million in 2025 and forecasts $3,255.9 million by 2034, an 11.43% annual growth rate.Source: IMARC Group, Employee Engagement Software Market Statistics, 2025Vendor claim

Methodology

We used primary sources we opened directly: Gallup (State of the Global Workplace 2026, Gallup Panel indicators, the 2024 Q12 meta-analysis and Gallup and Workhuman recognition research), Eurofound's 2024 European Working Conditions Survey, Eurostat's 2020 Labour Force Survey module, EU-OSHA's OSH Pulse 2025, Microsoft's Work Trend Index and SHRM. Each fact gives the data year, or the publication year when the source does not state fieldwork dates, and is labeled survey, study, official or vendor-claim.

Limits: Gallup's engagement measure (the Q12) differs from Eurofound's job-quality indicators, so the Gallup Europe figure and the EWCS figures are not directly comparable. Many U.S. figures come from the Gallup Panel and do not describe Europe. Turnover cost ranges are rules of thumb without a published method and are labeled vendor-claim.

The market size estimate comes from a commercial research firm. We excluded country-level Gallup figures and widely repeated burnout percentages that we could not confirm on the original publisher's page.

Frequently asked questions

What percentage of employees are engaged at work?

Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2026 found that 20% of employees worldwide were engaged in 2025, 64% were not engaged and 16% were actively disengaged. In the U.S., engagement fell to 29% in Q3 2026, the lowest level since 2011.

Why is employee engagement so low in Europe?

Gallup measured 12% engagement in Europe, the lowest of its 10 regions, even though European workers report less daily loneliness and more life thriving than the global average. Gallup's data does not explain the gap; Eurofound's 2024 survey shows that 16% of European workers rarely or never get support from their manager.

How much does it cost to replace an employee?

Gallup estimates one-half to two times annual salary, and about 200% for leaders, 80% for technical roles and 40% for frontline employees. A SHRM Executive Network article gives 50% to 200%. Neither publishes a detailed method on those pages, so treat the figures as ranges.

How much influence do managers have on engagement?

Gallup reports that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in engagement scores across business units. Manager engagement itself is falling: 22% of managers worldwide were engaged in 2025, down from 31% in 2022.

Does recognition improve retention?

Gallup and Workhuman research found that employees who received high-quality recognition were 45% less likely to have changed organizations two years later. Yet only 22% of U.S. employees said in 2024 that they get the right amount of recognition.