Hybrid and remote employees in organizations adopting AI experienced the sharpest declines.
U.S. employee engagement fell to 29% in the third quarter of 2026, its lowest level since 2011 and down two percentage points from the previous quarter. The share of actively disengaged employees rose from 17% to 18%, while 53% were not engaged.
The latest decline was sharpest among remote and hybrid employees, particularly those in organizations that have adopted artificial intelligence. Employees also reported less clarity about what is expected of them at work and were less likely to feel that someone at work cares about them as a person. These findings raise questions about whether communication and manager support are keeping pace with AI integration.
Being committed to a job is a wild metric, considering commitment requires loyalty from both parties and companies have shown over and over again that they are not loyal to their employees.
Is there a corresponding employer engagement metric?
I agree, and I’d call it a weird metric, and I am not sure this says much, except that if people feel they are underpaid, of course their enthusiasm will drop. So my guess this is a result of people feeling underpaid or treated poorly.
The employee engagement thing sounds 100% like something designed for the employers, so they can see how “dedicated” their workers are.
I have been in corporate management at the executive level and can tell you that’s exactly what that is. They also have a set of metrics they don’t talk about with employees where each manager essentially rates their direct reports based on what they think their skill levels are, contributions throughout the year, how replaceable they are, and if they are a flight risk.
Yep. in most companies employees are just a resource.
Yeah it is, so is this metric set to blame the employee or the company as the reason for the drop? The company should hold the blame here.
Stagnating wages do that