(NewsNation) — The unemployment rate hasn’t spiked as some feared, but the labor market may be getting softer with fewer job openings. This makes finding another job harder for the two-thirds of workers who are dissatisfied with their current roles.
Glassdoor, a popular job and recruiting site, released its “Glassdoor Worklife Trends 2025” report Tuesday, finding that 65% of professionals reported feeling “stuck” in their jobs. Yet quit rates are at their lowest level since June 2020, the height of the pandemic.
“Despite resilient headline economic indicators, many workers don’t feel like the job market is working for them,” said Daniel Zhao, lead economist at Glassdoor, in the report.
“That angst is founded in the stagnation that many workers are feeling in their careers right now as hiring slows.”
The labor market now is much different from 2021, during the “Great Resignation,” when employees resigned in droves, citing stagnating wages, rising costs of living, and inflexible remote work policies, among other reasons.
“As we turn the page from 2024 to 2025, questions about the health of the job market are front and center,” Zhao said. “The pandemic era of labor shortages and the Great Resignation are fully in the rearview mirror.
“Workers are grappling with the consequences of this stagnation and finding ways to circumvent it, while managers and leaders are looking for ways to engage workers in this new era.”
Looking ahead, Glassdoor predicts “pent-up resentment will boil over,” leading to increased resignations.
“The longer the job market remains soft, the more workers are forced to stay even if it’s time for them to move on,” Zhao wrote. “Once the job market heats up again, that will open a relief valve to release the bottled-up pressure by giving workers the option to quit in favor of better options on the market.”
For now, employers have low turnover rates, but Glassdoor predicts “a wave of revenge quitting is on the horizon.”
The report also found that more job changers are settling for lower pay or lower-level positions.
“Even if hiring picks back up in 2025, it will likely still be a tough job market for entry-level and less experienced workers who will have to wait for their more experienced peers to move up first,” Zhao wrote.
Glassdoor’s data found that new business applications have surged since the pandemic, a sign of entrepreneurship and gig work. It predicts that the side hustle culture will continue, as 39% of respondents to a 2024 Glassdoor-Harris poll said they had a side hustle to boost income.