The ADP Research Employee Motivation and Commitment Index, which tracks how U.S. workers think and feel about their jobs, weakened in May.

The sentiment index lost a point, closing at 131, after last month’s 3-point increase ended a seven-month run of weakening.

Sentiment lost ground in five of the 10 industries we track. Health care showed the biggest decline, dropping 12 points to 127. Real estate shed 10 points to 114, and information dropped 8 points to 134.

Transportation and warehousing showed the largest improvement, rising 12 points to 161. Manufacturing ended its four-month slide, gaining 9 points to 181. Retail and wholesale trade, which had lost 41 points over seven straight months of decline, rose 5 points to 121.

Finance and insurance, which has been gaining strength since February, rose 3 points to 120, its highest level since October.

“Health care hiring is booming, but worker sentiment in the sector is not,” said Dr. Mary Hayes, research director at People and Performance. “In the bigger picture, while we saw improvement in April, our long run of weakening worker sentiment might not be over.”

Sentiment improved among repetitive task workers for the second month, with the index climbing 7 points to 110. Knowledge worker sentiment increased for the first time since September, edging up 2 points to 124. Skilled task worker sentiment shed 5 points to 126, falling to its lowest level since May 2025.

Employers with 5,000 or more workers showed the biggest improvement, with worker sentiment rising 7 points to 96. Those with 500 to 999 workers had the largest decline, slipping 7 points to 105, the cohort’s lowest reading since May 2025.

About the EMC Index

The Employee Motivation and Commitment Index tracks how people think and feel about their jobs and employers. ADP Research uses a panel survey to gather a stratified, random panel sample of 2,500 U.S. workers each month. This month’s survey was fielded May 1 to 7, 2026.

We identify respondents by work type based on their choice of three options:

• I have a level of freedom to use my expertise to create something new. (Our definition of knowledge worker.)
• I use a level of expertise to solve similar problems each day. (Our definition of skilled task worker.)
• I do similar repetitive tasks each day. (Our definition of repetitive task worker.)

By providing a real-time measure of the state of worker allegiance, the index can tell us whether people are flourishing in their jobs or detaching. ADP Research publishes the EMC Index on the third Tuesday of every month. The next release will be June 16.