Confidence Is Leaving Through the Entry Level

Glassdoor's latest Employee Confidence Index contains a number every leader should notice. In September, only 42.9% of employees reported a positive six-month outlook for their company, down from 44.5% in August. By Glassdoor's count, it is the third record low of 2026.

The more revealing finding sits beneath the headline. Confidence is not falling evenly. Senior employees are actually more optimistic than a year ago, up 4.6 points. Entry-level employees are moving the other way, down 4.1 points year over year. Glassdoor's chief economist, Daniel Zhao, also notes that mentions of uncertainty in employee reviews are up 84% from a year ago, and mentions of AI are up 164%.

In other words, the people at the very top and the people at the start are living in two different workplaces.

A Generational Confidence Gap

This gap matters because it reflects something bigger than one survey. According to the 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer, only 21% of Americans believe the next generation will be better off, down nine points in a year.

Put those numbers together and a clear picture emerges. Many early-career professionals are entering the workforce with real doubts about whether the system has a place for them. They hear that AI will take entry-level work. They see hiring slow. They watch experienced colleagues grow more confident while their own path looks less certain.

Confidence at the entry level is not a soft or secondary metric. It is where the next generation of leaders either begins to believe in their future or starts to hedge against it.

Confidence Is the Wrong Thing to Chase

Here is where I would push the conversation further. Confidence is the result we can measure. Conviction is what produces it.

I define conviction as the earned capacity to act on what you believe before the outcome is certain. Confidence often depends on circumstances: a strong market, a clear path, a supportive boss. Conviction holds even when circumstances wobble, because it rests on knowing who you are and what you solve for.

That is why I believe conviction comes before confidence. Senior employees have had years to build it. They have been tested, have recovered from setbacks and know what they bring. Entry-level employees have not had those repetitions yet. When the environment becomes uncertain, they have less to stand on.

In my work, I describe three doors people walk through in their careers: Claim, Reclaim and Transform. Early in a career, the work is claiming: discovering what you bring and deciding to stand on it. Later, many leaders find they have to reclaim parts of themselves they edited out to fit in. The more organizations help people claim who they are early, the less they will need to reclaim later.

That is the real opportunity hiding in Glassdoor's data. A generation that is uncertain about its future is also a generation still forming its professional identity. What leaders do now will shape how those people lead for decades.

Leaders cannot hand young professionals a stable economy. They can help them build conviction faster.

What Early Careers Need Now

In my work on opportunity, I teach four skills: See, Sow, Grow and Share. They describe how people recognize opportunity, invest in it, develop it and create value with others. Most organizations expect early-career employees to learn these skills on their own. In this environment, that is a missed opportunity.

Standard onboarding still matters. Clear expectations, training and shared tools give new employees a foundation. But the foundation alone will not build conviction. Personalization does: helping each person discover what they uniquely bring, and giving them early chances to apply it.

As I wrote in Raise the Individual, Not the Resume, adaptability and self-awareness prepare young people for a changing workforce in ways credentials alone cannot. And as I explored in A Skills-First Economy Needs an Identity-First Foundation, people who know what they solve for find their footing faster.

Three Moves for Leaders

Ask early-career employees what they solve for. Many have never been asked. The conversation itself builds clarity and signals that they matter.

Pair them with senior leaders who share how they built conviction, not just how they built a resume. Senior confidence is rising. Put some of it to work for the people who need it most.

Give them real repetitions early. Small projects with genuine responsibility and visible outcomes build more conviction than months of watching from the sidelines.

Talk honestly about AI. Uncertainty grows in silence. Explain how AI will change entry-level work, what will stay human, and how you will help people grow into what comes next.

The confidence gap Glassdoor is measuring will not close on its own. It closes when leaders decide that the people starting their careers deserve the same investment in conviction that senior leaders once received.

Want to explore these ideas further? Learn more about my work on leadership, identity and conviction at www.theglennllopis.com.