Quiet Quitting Statistics (2026)
Quiet quitting has no official statistic, because it is a phrase and not a survey category. The number everyone uses is Gallup's "not engaged" share, the employees who show up, do what the job description says and nothing more. In the first half of 2026 that was 51% of US workers, with another 18% actively disengaged. Only 31% were engaged. The not-engaged share has sat near half of the workforce since Gallup first attached it to the phrase in 2022.
Most pages ranking for this term quote a 2022 ResumeBuilder poll of 1,000 people as if it were a census, mix US and global figures, and attribute "$8.8 trillion" to the current Gallup report when that figure is two editions old. This page gives the sample and date next to every number, separates the attitude data from the behavior data, and covers who is quiet quitting, why, what it costs, how managers are doing worse than their teams, and what the quits data say about whether anyone is actually leaving.
How many employees are quiet quitting?
Gallup's own definition, set out in its September 2022 article on 15,091 US employees surveyed that June, is that quiet quitters are the "not engaged": people who are psychologically detached from their work and do the minimum required. At that point they were "at least 50%" of the US workforce. The share has not moved much since.
| Period | Engaged | Not engaged (quiet quitting) | Actively disengaged | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 36% | 50% | 14% | Gallup Panel |
| Q2 2022 | 32% | 50% | 18% | 15,091 |
| 2023 | 33% | 51% | 16% | About 76,000 |
| 2024 | 31% | 52% | 17% | 79,087 |
| 2025 | 31% | 52% | 17% | 78,945 |
| H1 2026 | 31% | 51% | 18% | 43,262 |
Globally the group is larger. Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2026, from 141,444 employed respondents in 2025, found 64% of employees worldwide not engaged, 20% engaged and 16% actively disengaged. US and global figures are routinely swapped on this topic. The US not-engaged share is about half; the world's is about two thirds.
What the surveys actually measured
Three surveys asked about quiet quitting by name in 2022, and they measured different things.
- ResumeBuilder, August 2022. A Pollfish poll of 1,000 US workers. Twenty-one percent said they did only the bare minimum, and 46% said they did not do more than they were paid for. Five percent said they did less than they were paid for. Eight in ten of the self-described quiet quitters said they were burned out. It is the source of the "1 in 4" and "one in five" headlines, and it is a 1,000-person online panel from four years ago. The write-up is at resumebuilder.com.
- SHRM, September 2022. A survey of 1,234 HR professionals, not employees. Thirty-six percent said quiet quitting was occurring in their organization, and 51% were concerned about it. HR's perception of the behavior, not the behavior itself. Summarized in SHRM's viewpoint piece.
- Zenger and Folkman, Harvard Business Review, August 2022. A 360-degree feedback analysis of 2,801 managers rated by 13,048 direct reports. Among managers rated worst at balancing results with relationships, 14% of direct reports were quiet quitting and 20% going the extra mile. Among the best-rated managers, 3% were quiet quitting and 62% were going the extra mile. It is the only quiet quitting study that measured the manager and the employee together.
A figure to drop is Monster's "36% have quiet quit," which has no published sample. Gallup's not-engaged series is the one measure with a stable definition, a large sample and a trend line, which is why this page leans on it. Our employee engagement statistics page covers the full engagement picture.
Who is quiet quitting
Gallup's 2022 analysis found the drop in engagement was steepest among workers under 35. Between 2019 and 2022, the share of under-35s who strongly agreed that someone at work cares about them fell 10 points, and the share who had opportunities to learn and grow fell 10 points too. By 2025, Gallup's five-year review put the decline since 2020 at 8 points for Gen Z and younger millennials, 9 points for older millennials born 1980 to 1988, 6 points for Gen X and zero for baby boomers. Our Gen Z workplace statistics page covers the youngest group in detail.
By location, the 2022 article found engagement fell most among fully remote and hybrid workers under 35, and that the share of younger remote workers who strongly agree they know what is expected of them fell to under four in ten. Fully remote workers reported both the highest engagement and the highest active disengagement, a polarized group. Among exclusively remote workers in 2024, Gallup's indicator shows 31% engaged and 20% actively disengaged, against 31% and 17% for the workforce as a whole.
There is no reliable gender or industry split for quiet quitting as such. Gallup's industry engagement data put finance and insurance and professional services at the top and manufacturing, transportation and retail at the bottom, with a gap of about 15 points between the highest and lowest industries in 2024.
Why: the drivers that collapsed
Gallup's explanation for quiet quitting is that the basic conditions of the job deteriorated, and it tracks that with twelve items. The one that fell furthest is the most fundamental: the share of US employees who strongly agree they know what is expected of them at work.
| "I know what is expected of me at work," strongly agree | Share |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 61% |
| March 2020 | 56% |
| 2022 | 44% |
| 2024 | 46% |
| May 2026 | 49% |
Alongside it, per Gallup's indicator page as of May 2026: 40% strongly agree someone at work cares about them as a person, down from 47% in 2020; 31% that someone encourages their development, down from 36%; 29% that they received recognition in the last seven days; 27% that their opinions count. Asked open-ended what is missing, the most common answers in Gallup's 2026 data were an isolated or impersonal culture (32%), a lack of clear and honest communication from leaders (29%) and under-investment in people, pay, tools and staffing (25%).
The ResumeBuilder respondents gave the employee's version of the same thing. Among those doing the minimum, the reasons were not being paid enough, wanting better work-life balance and not feeling appreciated. Eighty percent said they were burned out. The Zenger and Folkman data suggest the fix sits with the manager: the quiet quitting rate was more than four times higher under the worst-rated managers than the best.
The managers are quiet quitting too
The group whose engagement has fallen fastest is not frontline staff. Globally, manager engagement went from 31% in 2022 to 30% in 2023, 27% in 2024 and 22% in 2025, per Gallup's global reports, while individual contributors held at 18% to 19%. The 2024 drop was concentrated among managers under 35 and women managers. Managers also report more daily stress than their teams, 45% against 39%. In the US, Gallup's 2025 analysis found 36% of managers engaged, higher than non-managers but down from a 2020 peak, and documented a 2023 to 2024 drop in manager engagement that preceded the drop among their reports. Gallup's long-standing estimate is that the manager accounts for at least 70% of the variance in team engagement, from a 2014 regression across 11,781 teams.
Gallup's prescription, stated in the 2022 article, is one meaningful conversation of 15 to 30 minutes per employee per week. Its 2024 data on leavers found 45% had no such conversation in the three months before they quit. Our one-on-one meeting template is built for that.
What it costs
Gallup's estimate is that not-engaged and actively disengaged employees cost the world about $10 trillion a year in lost productivity, roughly 9% of global GDP, and the US about $2 trillion. Those are models applied to survey data. They also move: the global figure was $7.8 trillion in the 2022 report, $8.8 trillion in 2023, $8.9 trillion in 2024 and $10 trillion in the 2026 edition. The $8.8 trillion figure that most quiet quitting pages carry was retired three reports ago. Our employee cost calculator lets you put your own numbers to it.
At the team level, Gallup's Q12 meta-analysis across 183,806 business units gives the gap between engaged and disengaged teams: 23% in profitability, 18% in sales productivity, 78% in absenteeism and 51% in turnover at low-turnover organizations. Those are median differences between top-quartile and bottom-quartile units, not the effect of one quiet quitter.
Quiet quitting against actual quitting
The attitude data and the behavior data point in opposite directions. In the fourth quarter of 2025, Gallup's survey of 22,368 US workers found 51% actively looking for a new job or watching for openings, and 72% saying it was a bad time to find a quality job. Meanwhile the BLS quits rate was 1.9% in August 2026, down from 3.0% at the 2022 peak, and annual quits fell from 50.5 million in 2022 to 38.0 million in 2025. Half the workforce is watching the door and a shrinking share is walking through it. That is what quiet quitting looks like in the national data: detachment without departure. Our employee turnover statistics page has the quits series in full.
One figure cuts the other way. Gallup's 2024 study of 717 recent leavers found 42% said their manager or organization could have done something to keep them, which suggests a meaningful share of quiet quitters do eventually leave, and that the window to act is the months of disengagement before they do.
Reading these figures carefully
Quiet quitting is a label applied after the fact to a measure Gallup has run since 2000. The "not engaged" share was 50% or more for most of the 2000s and 2010s too; what changed in 2022 was the name and the drop in engagement from the 2020 peak. Any page that says quiet quitting "rose to 50%" is describing a return to the long-run norm, not a new phenomenon. Keep US and global figures apart, date the cost estimates, and treat the 2022 polls as snapshots of a moment, not a trend.
Key takeaways
- 51% of US employees were not engaged in the first half of 2026, the group Gallup equates with quiet quitting. 31% were engaged and 18% actively disengaged, from 43,262 workers surveyed.
- Globally, 64% of employees were not engaged in 2025. US and global figures are frequently swapped.
- The 2022 ResumeBuilder poll found 21% doing the bare minimum and 46% not doing more than they were paid for. It is a 1,000-person online panel and should be dated.
- Under the worst-rated managers, 14% of direct reports were quiet quitting; under the best, 3%, in Zenger and Folkman's analysis of 2,801 managers.
- Clarity of expectations fell from 61% in 2015 to 44% in 2022 and has recovered only to 49% in 2026. The decline is steepest among workers under 35.
- Global manager engagement fell from 31% in 2022 to 22% in 2025, faster than any other group.
- Gallup's cost estimate is $2 trillion a year for the US and $10 trillion globally. The $8.8 trillion figure is from the 2023 report.
- 51% of US workers are watching or looking for a new job while the quits rate is 1.9%, down from 3.0% in 2022. Detachment is rising while departures fall.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of employees are quiet quitting in 2026?
About 51% of US employees were not engaged in the first half of 2026, which is the measure Gallup uses for quiet quitting. A further 18% were actively disengaged. Globally, 64% of employees were not engaged in 2025.
Is quiet quitting still happening?
Yes, by Gallup's definition it never stopped. The not-engaged share has been 50% to 52% every year since 2020. What changed in 2022 was the label, and a drop in engagement from a 36% peak in 2020 to 31% by 2024, where it has stayed.
Which generation quiet quits the most?
Younger workers. Since 2020, engagement has fallen 8 points among Gen Z and younger millennials and 9 points among older millennials, against 6 for Gen X and no change for boomers. In 2022, the share of under-35s who felt someone at work cared about them fell 10 points in three years.
What causes quiet quitting?
Gallup's data point to unclear expectations, a lack of care and development, and poor management. Only 49% of US employees strongly agree they know what is expected of them, down from 61% in 2015. Under the worst-rated managers, quiet quitting was more than four times as common as under the best.
How much does quiet quitting cost?
Gallup estimates that not-engaged and actively disengaged employees cost about $2 trillion a year in lost US productivity and $10 trillion globally, about 9% of world GDP. These are modeled estimates, and the global figure has risen from $8.8 trillion since the 2023 report.
Are quiet quitters actually leaving their jobs?
Mostly not. The BLS quits rate was 1.9% in August 2026, down from 3.0% at the 2022 peak, and annual quits fell by 12.5 million between 2022 and 2025. At the same time 51% of US workers say they are watching or looking for a new job, which is the gap quiet quitting describes.
Are managers quiet quitting?
Globally, manager engagement fell from 31% in 2022 to 22% in 2025, the steepest decline of any group, with the drop concentrated among managers under 35 and women managers. US managers remain more engaged than non-managers at 36%, but down from their 2020 peak.
What is the difference between quiet quitting and disengagement?
Quiet quitting is the popular name for Gallup's "not engaged" group, people who do the minimum and are psychologically detached. Actively disengaged employees are a separate, smaller group, 18% in 2026, who are unhappy and may work against the organization.