Gallup Survey Reveals Sharp Rise in US Worker Pessimism Over Job Market
A new Gallup survey has uncovered a dramatic increase in gloom among American workers regarding the job market, with outlooks turning increasingly pessimistic despite low unemployment rates. This negative shift likely reflects an ongoing hiring drought that has left many struggling to find quality employment opportunities.
Stark Decline in Job Market Optimism
According to the quarterly Gallup survey conducted in late 2025, just 28% of workers believe now is a good time to find a quality job, while a staggering 72% view it as a bad time. These figures mark a sharp reversal from mid-2022, when 70% of workers expressed optimism about the job market. The decline has been rapid, with even as recently as late 2024, just under half of workers still considering it a favorable time to search for employment.
The survey was carried out during the final three months of 2025, preceding the Iran war that has since driven up oil and gas prices, threatening to slow the economy further as Americans redirect spending toward fuel. This data helps explain other surveys indicating a largely bleak view of the economy among Americans, even as headline measures suggest growth and low job losses.
College Graduates and Young Workers Hit Hardest
Job pessimism is particularly pronounced among college graduates, with only 19% of degree-holders thinking it is a good time to find a quality job, compared to 35% of workers without a college degree. This split reflects unusually weak hiring in white-collar professions such as software, customer service, and advertising over the past two years. A separate Gallup survey found that college graduates' optimism about the job market is at its lowest since 2013, and the gap in sentiment between those with and without degrees is the widest since Gallup began asking the question in 2001.
Young workers are also experiencing significant discontent, with just about 2 in 10 workers aged 18-34 viewing the job market favorably, compared to about 4 in 10 workers aged 65 and older. This aligns with what economists term the low-hire, low-fire job market, where businesses retain existing workers but hiring remains sluggish, making it difficult for younger individuals to secure permanent positions. Gallup's findings indicate that younger workers are much more likely to be actively seeking new opportunities or watching for them, while older workers feel more secure in their jobs.
Broader Economic Indicators and Survey Consistency
Government data supports the survey results, showing overall hiring at its weakest level in over a decade. The hiring rate dropped to 3.2% in November 2025, the lowest since March 2013, when the unemployment rate was 7.5% following the Great Recession. This suggests that finding a job is now much harder than the current unemployment rate indicates. Additionally, there are currently more unemployed people (7.4 million) than available jobs (6.9 million), reversing the trend seen in the early post-pandemic years when vacancies outnumbered those out of work.
Gallup's survey also reveals that workers have a dimmer view of their current life and future prospects than at any point since 2009, when the firm began measuring workforce life evaluations. Other surveys echo this dark economic outlook, such as The Conference Board's consumer confidence survey, which stood at 91.2 in February, not far from pandemic-era lows and down from nearly 130 before the pandemic. While more people still believe jobs are easy to get than hard to find, the gap has narrowed steadily in recent years.
The Gallup poll, which surveyed 22,368 U.S. adults working full-time and part-time from October 30 to November 13, 2025, using a probability-based panel, has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 1.0 percentage points. This comprehensive data underscores a growing sense of economic uncertainty among American workers, driven by hiring challenges and broader market conditions.
