Economic uncertainty on the rise as people worried about their jobs amid Trump's tariffs, DOGE layoffs
Job uncertainty persists post-Covid-19 as layoffs and funding cuts erode employee confidence.
The fear of job uncertainty continues to rise years after the Covid-19 pandemic. While normalcy has set in most workplaces since the world suddenly shut down, people are still worried about their jobs. Mass layoffs and federal funding cuts have contributed to low employee confidence. More recently, trillions were lost as stock markets crumbled in the aftermath of President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs.
Economic uncertainty on the rise as people worried about their jobs amid Trump's tariffs, DOGE layoffs
A recent report by Glassdoor's lead economist, Daniel Zhao, shows that while employee confidence rose to 45.2% in March from a record low of 44.7% in February, “economic uncertainty remains a significant drag on the sentiment of workers as tariffs, federal funding and workforce cuts, and general business uncertainty disrupt investment and hiring plans.”
With recession becoming a general topic of discussion in the wake of global market shake-ups and job cuts, business leaders echoed similar sentiments, according to Moody's Analytics of Survey of Business Confidence. “Global business confidence collapsed last week under the weight of the mounting global trade war,” the analysis notes.
The Moody's report further states that the latest survey reading was the weakest “since the U.S. banking crisis two years ago and the most significant decline in the survey results since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic five years ago.” Meanwhile, Zhao adds that mentions of “layoffs” and “recession” in Glassdoor reviews rose 4% year over year and 16% in March month-over-month, respectively.
The industries with the lowest employee confidence include aerospace and defence, government and public administration, and nonprofit and NGO, all of which “have been affected severely by the DOGE layoffs and funding cuts,” per the Glassdoor report. Additionally, Zhao told MarketWatch, “A lot of this comes back to job security and the concern that workers have if the economy were to weaken further.”
