Workers around the world are feeling unhappy about their jobs right now. Global employee engagement has dropped to just 20% in 2025, which means most workers are not feeling motivated or happy at work. This is the first time engagement has dropped two years in a row.

One big reason workers are worried is artificial intelligence and automation. Many workers are scared that AI might take their jobs away or completely change what they do. Even though AI can help people work faster, the fear of not knowing what will happen is making workers unhappy.

Managers are also struggling, which makes everything worse. Manager engagement dropped by 9 percentage points since 2022. When managers aren't happy, their workers become unhappy too. Many companies are making teams bigger with fewer managers, so each manager has to help more workers.

The unhappy workers are costing the world huge amounts of money. Disengaged employees cost about $10 trillion in lost productivity worldwide, which is about 9% of all money made globally.

However, there is good news. Companies are still hiring! In March, 178,000 new jobs were created. Healthcare is hiring the most, with 76,000 new jobs. Construction added 26,000 and transportation added 21,000. But the global economy is slowing down, so companies might hire fewer people in the future.