Eagle Hill's Employee Retention Index was down slightly in the fourth quarter of 2025, but “still well above where the year began.”
The Retention Index increased sharply in 2025:
The Retention Index closed 2025 at 105.0, up from 98.5 at the end of 2024.
The substantial increase in retention was driven by greater confidence in organizations and stronger workplace culture sentiment.
Millennials show strongest retention:
Millennials registered a Retention Index of 115.4, up 1.2 points, making them the generation most likely to stay over the next six months.
Millennials were the only generation to see gains this period and scored significantly higher across all internal satisfaction measures compared to other workforce generations.
Women, Gen Z, Gen X, and Baby Boomers all saw slight declines in retention.
Despite a typical year-end dip, U.S. workers are entering 2026 more likely to stay with their employers than they were coming into 2025. Employees are anchoring onto the relative stability of their current roles as they see fewer viable or attractive external opportunities."
Read more via Eagle Hill Consulting
Nearly 80% of professionals feel unprepared to find a job in 2026, even as more than half are actively seeking new roles, according to new research from LinkedIn surveying over 19,000 workers and 6,500 HR professionals globally.
Job applications are up, but applicants say competition is tough:
U.S. applicants per open role have doubled since spring 2022, according to LinkedIn data.
65% of job seekers say finding a job has become more challenging, citing competition as the main obstacle.
Recruiters are having trouble finding qualified candidates:
66% of recruiters say it has become harder to find qualified talent over the past year, facing growing pressure to fill roles faster (42%) and uncover overlooked candidates (39%).
AI adoption in recruiting is accelerating:
93% of recruiters plan to increase AI use in 2026, with 59% saying AI already helps them identify candidates with relevant skills they previously would have missed.
81% of job seekers have used or plan to use AI in their job search, with nearly half (48%) saying AI tools boost their interview confidence.
Read more via LinkedIn
40% of hourly workers report feeling worse off than the national economy, suggesting a growing financial divide between salaried employees and the hourly workforce, according to PYMNTS Intelligence's Wage to Wallet Index.
41% of salaried workers said they are financially better off than the national economy, compared with just 17.7% of hourly workers.
Nearly one-third of both groups incur overdraft fees or late payment penalties monthly, but those costs consume a larger share of hourly workers' income.
47.3% of hourly workers delayed or missed a bill payment in the prior month because paychecks had not yet cleared.
Read more via PYMNTS
Europe has the lowest regional employee engagement rate at just 13%, while the U.S. and Canada lead at 31%, according to Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2025 Report.
Global employee engagement fell two points to 21% in 2024, with lost productivity costing the global economy $438 billion.
Manager engagement dropped from 30% to 27% in 2024, with young managers (under 35) experiencing a 5% decline and female managers seeing a 7% drop—the sharpest decreases among all worker categories.
Individual contributor engagement remained flat at 18%.
Gallup estimates that $9.6 trillion in productivity could be added to the global economy if the workforce were fully engaged, representing a 9% increase in global GDP.
Employee wellbeing has declined since peaking at 35% in 2022, with older managers and female managers experiencing the largest recent decreases.
Read more via SIA, Gallup
Support for employee needs is emerging as a key differentiator between high- and low-performing organizations, according to new SHRM research.
The performance divide:
72% of HR professionals said workers have higher expectations of employers than in the past.
Among workers who rated their employers positively on addressing needs, 91% reported job satisfaction, compared to just 44% whose employers were ineffective.
Over half of employees at organizations that failed to meet employee needs said they were at least somewhat likely to leave within a year.
Leadership development emerges as top priority:
SHRM's separate survey of 129 CHROs found leadership transparency and management of multigenerational workforces expected to become more prevalent workplace trends in 2026.
CHROs reported the rest of the C-suite has increasingly recognized the importance of manager development in preparing for unprecedented change.
Read more via HR Dive, SHRM
