Every year Gallup asks workers in more than 140 countries the same set of questions and reduces the answers to a single number: the share of employees who are engaged at work. The 2026 report, based on 2025 data, puts it at 20 percent1.
That is the lowest level since 2020, three points below the 23 percent peak of 2022. It is also the first time the measure has fallen two years running1,2. Each percentage point is roughly 21 million workers2.
Gallup estimates that low engagement costs the world economy around 10 trillion dollars in lost productivity, equal to 9 percent of global GDP1,2.
The steepest fall is not among staff
Split the data by role and the picture sharpens. Manager engagement in 2025 was 22 percent, down nine points from 31 percent in 20221. That group fell several times faster than the overall measure.
The trend was already visible a year earlier. On 2024 data, Gallup recorded global engagement falling from 23 to 21 percent, with almost all of the drop coming from managers: they fell from 30 to 27 percent while individual contributors held steady at 18 percent. Managers under 35 fell five points, and female managers seven. Gallup put the cost of that single year's decline at 438 billion dollars3.
Among senior leaders, the 2026 report records 46 percent reporting high daily stress and 34 percent reporting high daily sadness1.
Why this matters more than a survey score
The direct manager shapes most of an employee's daily experience: who gets which work, what feedback sounds like, how conflict is handled, who gets to learn what. When managers run out of energy, every engagement programme behind them has to pass through a narrowed gate.
For several years this group has carried the heaviest part of every change: restructuring, cuts, the move to hybrid and the move back, and lately the pressure to put AI into the workflow. They are usually the ones explaining decisions they had no part in to people they see every day.
Gallup also records South Asia as the region where manager engagement fell most in 2025, by eight points2. For employers in Vietnam, where most team leaders are promoted for technical strength rather than trained to manage, that figure is worth reading twice.
Measure again before launching another programme
The usual reaction to a falling engagement score is a new programme: more activities, more benefits, another survey. Gallup's data suggests something else should come first.
Split your internal survey results by management level. If managers score lower, or are falling faster, a programme aimed at staff will not reach the root of it. What needs investment is the workload, the decision rights and the support given to those managers.
One more thing: engagement is an outcome, not an activity. It reflects whether people know what is expected, have the tools, get recognition and can see a way to grow. Those live in daily work, not in the year-end team-building trip.
Reading the 20 percent correctly in your own company
A common mistake when bringing this report into a meeting is comparing your own score directly with the global 20 percent. The two use different question sets and different scoring, so the comparison says nothing. What can be compared is your own trend over time, and the gaps between groups inside the company.
It is also worth remembering that engagement is not satisfaction. Someone can be satisfied with their pay, hours and commute and still be disengaged, because they are unclear what is expected, lack the tools to do the work well, get no recognition and cannot see where they are heading. A satisfaction survey measures comfort; an engagement survey measures the conditions that let people do good work.
That distinction matters when choosing what to do. If scores are low because expectations are unclear and feedback is rare, another company trip will not move them. Both of those causes sit within the reach of the direct manager, which is why that group deserves the first investment.
