Engagement among American workers is improving a bit. Still, more than half of workers who responded to a Gallup poll on engagement described themselves as essentially not fully engaged in their job.
Gallup got input from more than 80,000 U.S. working adults. Below are the results, with last year's in parentheses:
- Engaged: 31.5 percent (29.6 percent)
- Not engaged: 51 percent (51.5 percent)
- Actively disengaged: 17.5 percent (18.8 percent)
Gallup said the 31.5 percent is the highest level of engagement it's found since it began asking engagement questions in 2000. And, it noted, "The 1.9 percent increase in engagement from 2013 to 2014 represents 2.5 million employees nationwide."
Millennials are the least engaged by age bracket, at 28.9 percent, while older workers reported an average engagement level of 42.2 percent.
Recommended For You
Said Gallup of this phenomenon: "Although the economy is improving, workers in this generation may not be getting the jobs they had hoped for coming out of college. Gallup's employee engagement data reveal that millennials are particularly less likely than other generations to say they 'have the opportunity to do what they do best' at work. This finding suggests that millennials may not be working in jobs that allow them to use their talents and strengths, thus creating disengagement."
Among types of workers, managers, executives and officers had the highest engagement level at 38.4 percent, up from 34.7 percent in 2013. Manufacturing and production workers reported the lowest level (23 percent) with transportation workers and service employees not much above them at 25.5 percent and 28.2 percent respectively.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
