Survey: Only one-third of employees feel engaged with their work

Only one-third of American employees felt they were engaged in their work and workplace, according to new data from Gallup. While this is up slightly from the 32% engagement rate recorded in 2022, it is down from the 40% peak in June 2020, when the pandemic disrupted most workplaces.

Gallup also found the percentage of actively disengaged workers declined from 18% in 2022 to 16% in 2023, while 50% of employees were not engaged. The ratio of engaged to actively disengaged workers in the U.S. was 2.1-to-1 in 2023, up from 1.8-to-1 in 2022. The record high is a ratio of 2.7-to-1, which was recorded in 2019.

As for the employers’ perspective, 51% of managers told Gallup that the post-pandemic restructuring of their staff created layoffs, budget cuts and staffing challenges that exacerbated the workplace difficulties with nearly two-thirds of managers added, their employees now have additional job responsibilities forced upon them.

Gallup stated that each percentage point gain or drop in engagement represents approximately 1.6 million full- or part-time employees and added that workers who were “not engaged or actively disengaged employees account for approximately $1.9 trillion in lost productivity nationally.”