There is one word that sums up what workplaces feel like and what job hunters experienced in 2025 - and it’s not flattering.
Online career and recruiting platform Glassdoor has picked “fatigue” as its 2025 word of the year. This year, workers “spent a lot of time on edge — worried about the next headline, technology shift, or economic surprise coming around the corner,” according to company.
These issues, combined with concerns about layoffs, the economy and the rise of artificial intelligence, left America’s workforce “running on empty,” the platform said. Mentions of the word “fatigue” jumped 41 percent on the platform this year, and a Glassdoor survey conducted in April found that 78 percent of U.S. professionals responded “yes” when asked whether events in the news were draining their energy at work.
Fatigue is also setting in for job hunters as unemployment ticks up and people are reporting companies being stingy on hiring.
“Job searching today is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. From an applicant’s perspective, it’s exhausting: countless applications, interviews that feel promising, and then the familiar ‘Thank you, but we’ve decided to move forward with another candidate.’ It wears you down. It makes you question your path. But it also teaches you resilience,” LinkedIn user Zenelia Chavez posted days ago.
“Current situation just shows why I have practically given up on a full time job. The time I spent applying, interviewing and jumping through hoops would have been better spent on building my own business and doing side gigs,” Fellow LinkedIn user Lindsey Gilbreath recently posted.
“The job search doesn't pay anything and some of us need that time and energy to earn money now,” she continued. “Even if it's doing Uber Eats for a few hours for $60, I need that $60. The job search has no guarantee of income and I think a lot of people are realizing that. It's costing people money to spend time on your ridiculously long and complicated application.”
This isn’t the first time Glassdoor has declared a word of the year.
Last year, the word was “divisive,” with the platform citing “frustration in the job search process or discussions around current events.” In 2023, the word of the year was “anxiety,” with mentions of “layoffs” and “burnout” rising on the site.
Glassdoor’s announcement comes one day after the Labor Department reported that job vacancies hit 7.67 million in October, up slightly from September’s 7.66 million.
However, the agency’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey suggested confidence could be falling. In October, the survey indicated that layoffs went up and the number of people quitting their jobs went down.
Other surveys have also indicated that consumer confidence could be dropping.
Late last month, The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index dropped to 88.7, down several points from October’s score of 95.5. This marked the lowest consumer confidence rating since April, when economic concerns grew after President Donald Trump announced plans to implement sweeping tariffs.
Dana Peterson, The Conference Board’s chief economist, said in a statement that the overall tone of write-in responses from consumers in November was “slightly more negative” than the month prior.
“Consumers’ write-in responses pertaining to factors affecting the economy continued to be led by references to prices and inflation, tariffs and trade, and politics, with increased mentions of the federal government shutdown,” Peterson said. “Mentions of the labor market eased somewhat but still stood out among all other frequent themes not already cited.”
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