In a recent Gallup survey, a noticeable decline has been observed in workplace engagement over the past few years. The study revealed that the percentage of employees who felt actively engaged in their work dropped by 5 percent since its peak in 2020.

According to the survey, published on Wednesday, 31 percent of employees reported feeling actively engaged in their jobs in 2025, mirroring the sentiment from 2024. This is a significant decrease from 2020 when 36 percent of respondents claimed to be engaged, marking the highest level of engagement recorded by Gallup since they began tracking this data in 2000.

Gallup emphasized the significance of these figures, explaining that each percentage-point change equates to approximately 1.6 million full- or part-time workers. Thus, the 5 percent drop since 2020 signifies that around 8 million fewer employees are now engaged in their work compared to three years ago.

Conversely, 17 percent of those surveyed in 2025 admitted to feeling actively disengaged, a figure unchanged from the previous year. The highest levels of disengagement were recorded in 2007 and 2008, during the global financial crisis, with 20 percent of respondents feeling disconnected from their work.

Breaking down the data further, in 2020, 40 percent of Gen Z and younger millennials reported being engaged at work, alongside 39 percent of older millennials. However, by last year, these numbers had dropped to 32 and 30 percent, respectively, indicating a notable shift in workplace sentiment among younger generations.

Meanwhile, 17 percent of respondents reported feeling actively disengaged at work in 2025, a percentage unchanged from the year prior. The highest share of respondents, 20 percent, that reported feeling disengaged occurred in 2007 and 2008, amid the global financial crisis.

In 2020, 40 percent of Gen Z and younger millennials reported being engaged at work, while 39 percent of older millennials reported being engaged. But last year, 32 and 30 percent of those two groups reported feeling engaged, respectively.

Gen X saw a drop of 6 percent in the category, from 35 to 29 percent, while 34 percent of Baby Boomers reported feeling engaged last year — the same percentage that said so in 2020. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, which began in the U.S. in 2020, the unemployment rate increased sharply to 14.8 percent in April of that year before decreasing to 6.7 percent in December according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Last month, unemployment hit 4.4 percent, up 0.3 percent over the prior 12 months. 

The BLS also reported in 2024 that remote workers increased by more than twofold in 10 industries from 2019 to 2022. However, the bureau noted that productivity was slightly positively correlated with increasing remote workers in 61 industries during that time period. 

The Gallup survey was conducted via quarterly online surveys with 78,945 U.S. adults. It has a margin of error of 0.5 percent.