Employee engagement in the US falls to lowest level since 2011 — CNBC

In the United States, the share of employees engaged in their work fell to 29% in the third quarter of 2026, the lowest level since 2011. Compared with the previous quarter, the figure declined by 2 percentage points, CNBC reports, citing a Gallup study.

Gallup defines engagement as employees’ focus, motivation and enthusiasm for their work. The indicator peaked at 36% in 2020. By 2024, it had fallen to 31% and remained at that level throughout the first half of 2026, but a noticeable decline occurred in the third quarter.

Remote and hybrid employees

Gallup recorded the largest quarterly decline among employees working remotely and in hybrid formats. This particularly concerned employees of organizations that had integrated artificial intelligence.

In the third quarter, 46% of respondents completely agreed with the statement that they clearly understand expectations for their work. In the first half of the year, the figure was 49%. Another 37% of respondents completely agreed that their manager or someone at work cares about them, compared with 40% in the first half of the year.

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The share of actively disengaged employees was 18%, while Gallup classified 53% of all employees as disengaged. According to the organization’s estimate, one percentage point in the study corresponds to approximately 1.6 million US employees. Thus, the quarterly decline of 2 points corresponds to approximately 3.2 million fewer engaged employees.

AI not identified as a proven cause

Gallup surveyed a random sample of 21,648 adults aged 18 and older from August 5 to 19, 2026. The sampling margin of error was plus or minus 1 percentage point at a 95% confidence level.

Jim Harter, Gallup’s chief scientist for workplace management and wellbeing, said that since 2020, hybrid and fully remote employees have more often lost clarity about expectations for their work than on-site employees. At the same time, Gallup stressed that data from one quarter do not confirm the emergence of a sustained trend, and that the survey does not allow artificial intelligence to be identified as a specific cause of worsening employee sentiment.