On-site Workers Gaining Employment Optimism

Last year, global employee perceptions of the job market improved, according to Gallup, following a decline the previous year. The 2026 State of the Global Workplace report finds that in 2025, job market perceptions improved globally by one percentage point from the previous year to 52%.

The 2025 increase in job market optimism came entirely from nonremote-capable, fully on-site workers, while optimism dropped for fully remote and remote-capable, fully on-site workers.

However, job market optimism fell sharply last year in the United States and Canada. The United States/Canada region is now second-to-last in regional job market rankings. Since 2019, this region has fallen 23 points, from 70% to 47%.

U.S. business media reported on a “no hire, no fire” job climate for most of 2025, Gallup said. More recent revisions to official jobs numbers also found that the U.S. added only 181,000 jobs last year, down from the 1.5 million the year before.

When employees feel they have a choice in their work, Gallup found they are nearly 50% more likely to say it’s a good time to find a job. This belief holds across every region of the world. As technologies like artificial intelligence reshape the world of work, upskilling will likely be an essential part of employee hope for the future.