I don’t usually lead with statistics. They can make people feel like a category instead of a person.
But when Gallup drops a report that confirms what my clients have been saying to me for years, I want to talk about it.
Because this isn’t just data. It’s validation.
In March 2026, Gallup published new research on the state of U.S. workers. The numbers are hard to ignore.
More workers are struggling than thriving for the first time in recorded history. Job market confidence has falling sharply. College-educated workers are now more pessimistic about finding a job than people without degrees. And over half of workers want to leave but feel like they can’t.
Lovely.
For the first time ever, more workers are struggling than thriving.
For the first time since Gallup started tracking it, 49% of U.S. workers say they are struggling. Only 46% say they’re thriving. And before you think those are close enough numbers to dismiss, here’s the context.
Three years ago, more than 50% of workers fell into the thriving category. That shift happened fast.
This doesn’t mean that half the workforce suddenly became less capable of handling things.
It means that the conditions got objectively worse. And when conditions get worse, people struggle.
That is a simple cause and effect.
If you’ve been feeling like something shifted at work and you can’t put your finger on when or why, this might be your answer. The environment changed. Therefore, your response to it makes complete sense.
69% of workers aren’t engaged. That’s a culture problem.
Say that number out loud. Sixty-nine percent of workers are not engaged at work.
That means if you’re sitting in a meeting with nine other people, statistically only three of them actually give a damn. The rest are going through the motions. Collecting a paycheck and waiting for Friday.
Gallup says worker engagement has dropped to the lowest point in the past decade. The lowest in ten years.
People come to me convinced that they’re the problem. That they have somehow become lazy, difficult, or ungrateful. That they used to be a go-getter and now they can barely respond to emails without wanting to close the laptop and lie down.
When 69 out of every 100 people feel the same way you do, the issue is not you individually. It’s the container you’re working in.
Job market confidence hit a record low. Here’s what no one is saying.
Only 28% of workers believe it’s a good time to find a quality job right now. That’s down from 70% in mid-2022.
A 42-point drop in four years.
Most people will read that and think: great, so I really am stuck. And I get it. But I want to offer a different frame.
The reason you feel paralyzed about leaving is because the conditions are genuinely difficult, not because you’re a coward.
That fear is based on something real. And acknowledging that is different from using it as a reason to stay in a situation that’s actively making you miserable.
And there’s something else that isn’t getting enough attention. College-educated workers are now more pessimistic about the job market than workers without degrees. For years, it was the opposite. Having a degree meant more confidence about your options.
But that flipped in 2025. By the end of the year, only 19% of college-educated workers said it was a good time to find a quality job. Compare that to 35% of workers without degrees.
If you did everything you were supposed to do, got the education, built the resume, climbed the ladder, and you’re still struggling to see a way out? The data explains why.
White-collar hiring has been slow. Professional sectors got hit hard.
Your sense of being stuck is accurate.
Over half of workers want to leave, but most can’t.
More than half of workers are either actively looking for a new job or at least watching for something better. And yet, nearly half of active job seekers describe their search experience as negative. Many are applying and not even getting interviews.
Gallup described this as a workforce that is restless but largely stuck.
I want to sit with that phrase for a second because I think it captures perfectly what so many of my clients feel. Wanting to move but feeling like the floor is made of quicksand. Every time they try to take a step, something pulls them back.
The barriers are legit… pay and benefits, difficulty finding a comparable role, and other financial constraints.
We’re doing the honest math here and coming up short.
Your immobility is not a personal failure. The system is not making it easy. And if you have been hard on yourself for not just figuring it out already, I want you to let some of that go.
So what does this mean if you’re burned out right now?
If you are in the middle of burnout, this data is not meant to make you feel hopeless. I think it should do the opposite.
When you can see that what you are experiencing is part of a broader pattern, it starts to pull you out of the shame spiral.
Burnout thrives in isolation. It tells you that you are uniquely unable to handle what everyone else seems to be managing fine.
The data says otherwise. The conditions are harder. The environment is measurably worse. And the number of people feeling exactly what you are feeling is not a small percentage. It is the majority.
But none of this means you’re off the hook for figuring out what to do next.
The data explains why you feel this way. It does not decide what you do about it.
There is a difference between validating your experience and using it as a reason to stay stuck. The first one is necessary. The second one keeps you in place through a little thing called learned futility.
Your environment may be making things harder. Your employer may be contributing to your burnout. The job market may be genuinely difficult right now.
All of that can be true. And it can also be true that there are things within your own lane you can work with.
That is where I spend most of my time with clients. Not minimizing what is happening in the environment, but helping people figure out what is actually within their control. What they can influence. What they need to accept. And where the real work needs to happen.
Yes, things are harder. The numbers back that up.
More workers are struggling than thriving. Engagement is at a decade low. The people who followed every conventional rule about education and career are the ones feeling it hardest.
You’re living in a moment when the system is not working the way it was supposed to. And the first step to figuring out what to do about it is understanding that clearly.
If you’re ready to stop circling the question and actually start answer it, that’s what I help people do.
I’m Tara Kermiet — career coach, burnout strategist, speaker, and host of The Balanced Badass Podcast®. I help high-achievers and corporate leaders design careers that are successful and sustainable.
Here, you’ll find tactical tools, leadership lessons, and burnout education that just makes sense.
👉 Start by taking my free Burnout Drivers Mini Assessment
😍 Join my community on Instagram (@TaraKermiet) and/or TikTok (@TaraKermiet) so we can stay connected!
