Dive Brief:
- Less than half of workers report a positive six-month outlook of their employer, as overall employee confidence hits its lowest levels since 2016, according to Glassdoor's Employee Confidence Index published Monday.
- Last month, 49% of full-time and part-time employees in the information category — which includes industries such as software publishing and data processing — expressed confidence in their employer, compared to 62% in September of 2022.
- The report comes as the tech sector still reels from waves of mass layoffs at the beginning of 2023. "For workers who weren't laid off, there are still persistent impacts on morale and burnout," said Daniel Zhao, lead economist at Glassdoor. "Conversely, for workers who were laid off, it's not a surprise that they are still feeling the ripple effects of those layoffs."
Dive Insight:
While layoffs in the tech industry largely impacted supporting functions such as human resources and recruiting, the sting of job cuts can linger within a business.
"Tech has seen the most notable decline of any industry that we're tracking," Zhao said. "We've seen a pretty dramatic decline in employee confidence."
Morale is critical to talent retention, analysts and executives previously told CIO Dive. The majority of workers spared by waves of job cuts say they became less motivated as a result, according to BizReport data.
Despite anxiety among workers, labor market indicators reflect an ongoing need for technology talent across industries. While data vary month-to-month, the unemployment rate for IT positions remained consistently below national averages in the last 18 months.
CIOs can bolster team confidence by paying close attention to how employees feel, Zhao said.
"It's important for employers to recognize that, even though a layoff might be in the past, that doesn't mean that you can ignore the ongoing effects that might still be happening."
