Layoffs in the U.S. are still historically low, but that hasn't eased employee anxiety.

A new report from Glassdoor found that the share of company reviews mentioning layoffs increased from February to March and remained elevated overall--up 28 percent from last year. Meanwhile, workers' confidence in employers improved in March, but is still "muted," according to the report.  

This might come as a surprise, considering that some of 2024's most noteworthy layoffs--at giants like Google and Amazon--happened months ago. But it's not unusual to see a mismatch between employee sentiment and layoff data, says Glassdoor's lead economist Daniel Zhao, as employee concerns can linger beyond the news cycle.  

This is something company leaders may want to take note of, Zhao says: "There's a risk that employers aren't paying attention to simmering tension underneath the surface because they think, 'Hey, things are fine at my company. Why should my employees be concerned?'"  

The report also demonstrates that employees aren't just talking about layoffs--they're paying attention to the reasoning behind those layoffs. Glassdoor reviews that mentioned "overhiring" increased 24 percent year-over-year and 3.4 times over March of 2022, according to the report, coinciding with recent rounds of layoffs.  

Indeed, within the last year or so, several large companies have pointed at overhiring in layoff announcements. For instance, in a memo to team members at Spotify in December, CEO Daniel Ek addressed investing "significantly in team expansion" in 2020 and 2021 and the subsequent need to make sure the business was "right-sized for the challenges ahead."  

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