Employee Happiness Just Hit the Highest Level Since 2023. Here's How to Read This Recovery.

After four straight years of decline, employee happiness is finally turning a corner. In H1 2026, eNPS is up 4.4% year-over-year, marking the strongest first half since 2023.

Morale is more than the daily mood inside your workplace—it's a signal that every leader should pay attention to. This is most visible in employee retention trends: BambooHR platform data shows that happy companies lose 46% fewer employees than unhappy ones.

But the recovery isn’t reaching everyone equally. Behind that headline number is a workforce experience that varies by age, gender, tenure, and industry: Gen Z workers remain 17 points less satisfied than their older colleagues, and the tech industry is bucking the recovery trend entirely, sliding from the happiest sector in 2023 to below-average today.

Using Employee Net Promoter Scores® (eNPS) data and turnover data from BambooHR, this report breaks down where employee happiness sits in 2026, and what patterns companies can’t afford to ignore.

eNPS helps employers measure employee satisfaction. It consists of a numeric rating of how likely employees are to recommend the organization as a place to work. Employees select a score from 0–10, and these scores, categorized as Promoters (9 or 10), Passives (8), and Detractors (7 or below), are used to quantify how employees feel about their company.

The eNPS score is then calculated by taking the percentage of Promoters and subtracting the percentage of Detractors. The resulting score can range from -100 to +100, with higher eNPS scores indicating a higher level of employee satisfaction and loyalty.

What is a good eNPS score?

• Above 0 is good.
• Above 20 is favorable.
• Above 50 is excellent.
• Above 80 is world class.

Net Promoter, NPS, and the NPS-related emoticons are registered U.S. trademarks, and NetPromoter Score and Net Promoter System are service marks, of Bain & Company, Inc., NICE Systems, Inc. and Fred Reichheld.

Employee happiness has been increasing in the first half of 2026, a notable shift after four years of decline.

Employee happiness 2020–2025

• July 2020: All-time high
  • eNPS peaked at an all-time high of 48 in July 2020
• 2022–2024: Decline
  • eNPS falls 7.0% from 2022 to 2023
  • eNPS falls 2.8% from 2023 to 2024
• Nov–Dec 2024: All-time low
  • eNPS drops to 37 in Nov–Dec 2024
• Jan–Jun 2026: Continual increase
  • eNPS rises to 40 in H1 2026 (Jan–June), the strongest H1 since 2023

With H1 2026 eNPS now within half a point of its 2023 level, this is the strongest first half we've seen in three years. While the first half of the year typically outperforms the latter half, this is a 4.4% increase year-over-year, surpassing the typical H1 bump.

There’s a 46% relative difference in turnover between companies with the highest and lowest employee happiness scores—for unhappy companies, that’s around 18 additional exits per 100 employees per year.

Companies with a negative eNPS are also more likely to lose new hires. Unhappy companies have a first-year rate of 2.7% for early turnover, compared to 2.1% for companies with an excellent eNPS. That’s a nearly 30% difference.

Current hiring data adds valuable context here: Applicants per job posting have doubled from 2021 to 2025, but in the same period, hiring rates have fallen from 4.5% to 2.8%. All the hard work of sifting through large applicant pools in the midst of a low-hire period is for nothing if new hires choose an early exit.

In a low-hire labor market that favors employers, the strategic importance of employee satisfaction can get a little fuzzy. But the numbers suggest that unhappy employees are more likely to jump ship, even in the current conditions.

The turnover gap between happy and unhappy companies grows when you look at small businesses. Among companies with 150 or fewer employees, a negative eNPS lose 18 to 19 percentage points more of their workforce annually than their happiest counterparts. At a 75-person company, that's roughly 14 extra departures per year.

Larger businesses take less of a turnover hit on happiness. For companies with 301 to 500 employees, the turnover gap between happy and unhappy workforces shrinks to just 4.5 percentage points.

Keep in mind, these patterns between turnover and happiness can't identify causation. Unhappiness may cause high turnover, but it’s also plausible that the instability and burdens of high turnover rates causes greater unhappiness. It’s also possible that both happiness and turnover are being driven by an unknown third factor.

For this reason, it’s essential for companies to look at all of their workforce metrics in context with each other—just one or two data points will never tell you the full story of employee engagement.

Early turnover—employees who leave within their first 12 months—is costly and disruptive. Finding a replacement is always expensive (Gallup estimates it can cost 200% of the role’s salary to replace a manager), but repeating the process within just 12 months burns time and budget that most businesses don't forecast.

Aside from the money, early turnover is also a disruptor for workforce happiness. This is because employee happiness follows a tenure U-curve:

• New hires are happier (the honeymoon phase)
• Employees with two to three years of tenure are the unhappiest
• Employees with the longest tenure rebound to be the happiest cohort

Companies with a negative eNPS have the highest first-year rate for early turnover, at 2.7%. Compared to the happiest companies, with an early turnover rate of 2.1%, that’s a 30% relative difference. With a revolving door of new hires, these unhappy companies are accumulating fewer long-tenure, statistically happier employees.

In this sense, prioritizing happiness for new hire and early-tenure employees is an investment in long-term satisfaction for your entire workforce—the happy new hires of today become the committed employees of tomorrow.

Historically, male employees have been happier than female employees. That remains true in 2026, but the happiness gender gap may be narrowing ever so slightly.

The happiness gender gap for H1 2026 shows that men are 6.8 eNPS points happier than women. That's down from the average 8 point gap of the previous three years.

Nicole Csiszar, Senior Director of HR Services at BambooHR, cautions to not start celebrating yet—this is an opportunity to keep learning. “To close the gap you need to understand what’s driving a different experience in the first place,” says Nicole.

When analyzing satisfaction gaps between demographics, Nicole emphasizes the importance of acknowledging the differences within your workforce: “Are flexibility, career growth, manager effectiveness, wellbeing, or caregiving responsibilities showing up differently? If so, the solution isn’t one-size-fits-all. It’s designing experiences that reflect the reality of a diverse workforce rather than an ‘average employee’ who doesn’t really exist.”

Younger workers are hit the hardest by employee happiness downturns and are the slowest group to recover.

eNPS has a positive correlation with age—the older you are, the more happy you’re likely to be. Employees in the 26–30 age cohort trail the rest of the workforce, with an eNPS that’s 9 points lower than the overall average. By comparison, workers in the 51-60 age range had an H1 2026 eNPS that was 8 points higher than the overall average. That’s a 17-point happiness spread between young and older workers.

The data also tells a story of uneven recovery. While workers over the age of 50 have made strong gains in satisfaction levels, workers under 30 have seen only a moderate improvement in happiness.

Meanwhile, middle aged workers (between 30 and 50 years old) are mixed: Employees in their 30s have gotten slightly happier, the early 40s cohort had a more meaningful increase, and, interestingly, the late 40s cohort actually saw a small dip in satisfaction from 2025 to 2026.

These gaps in satisfaction and resilience suggest significant disparities in employee experience by age group. Much like happiness gaps by gender, these happiness age gaps require leaders to think of happiness less as a singular metric and more as a portfolio of all the distinct experiences within their workforce.

Based on the data, one-size-fits-all engagement initiatives are most likely under serving everyone. Leaders should consider whether current recognition programs, career development pathways, and manager training equip supervisors to address the diverse concerns of early, mid, and late career employees.

The tenure U-curve trend for happiness continued in the first half of 2026, but the drop in satisfaction for mid-tenure employees is lessening.

New hires and long term employees are the happiest, with an average eNPS of 51 and 57, respectively. Mid-tenure workers represent a low point in the employee journey, and employees with 2 to 3 years of tenure had the lowest eNPS at 33, well below the overall average for H1 2026.

New hires are a reliably happy cohort. The first year on the job appears to be a honeymoon phase—workers are optimistic and report a higher level of satisfaction than more tenured employees.

New hire eNPS has stayed stable for the last 18 months, hovering around 51. This stability points to an insulated new hire experience. Freshly onboarded employees may be in a bubble of sorts, unexposed to sentiment swings in the rest of the workplace.

The 2 to 3-year mark is the consistent low—these are the disillusionment years, when optimism fades but loyalty hasn't formed.

After bottoming around 30 throughout 2025, eNPS for the 2 to 3 year tenure cohort rose to 33 in first half of 2026. This is a rare jump up for a group that consistently struggles.

Slightly more tenured mid-career cohorts, including those in the 4 to 5 year group and 6 to 10 year group, also saw moderate increases in happiness from 2025 to 2026 with each group experiencing a 1-point bump.

Employees with 11 to 15 years of tenure saw the biggest jump in happiness. This group had a nearly 8-point increase in eNPS from 2025 to H1 2026.

In 2025, this cohort saw a considerable drop in eNPS, going from an average eNPS of 40 in 2024 to an eNPS of 36 in 2025. This is notable—following the tenure U-curve trend for happiness, you would typically expect employee happiness to spike after the 10-year mark.

With that in mind, H1 2026 eNPS data offers a hopeful sign of recovery for this group. The 11 to 15 year cohort is not only regaining lost progress, but surpassing historical averages for satisfaction in this tenure range.

Following past trends, employees with more than 25 years of tenure continue to be the happiest tenure cohort.

Veteran employee satisfaction surged from an eNPS around 49 in early 2025 to a peak of 58 at the end of the year. eNPS averages have remained elevated through June of this year, with an average eNPS in the first of 2026 settling at 57.

Construction continues its lead in the first half of 2026, with an eNPS of 51.

Technology is the only industry in a sustained decline. The industry went from leading all industries in happiness in 2023, with an eNPS of 42, to falling below the overall average in H1 2026 with an eNPS of 37. This drop in morale could be tied to the rise in tech layoffs over the past six months.

Finance shows the strongest H1 2026 recovery, with an average eNPS of 47—up 10.5% year-over-year. Despite these gains, the industry is still vulnerable among its more tenured cohort, who report much lower satisfaction levels.

Restaurant, Food, and Beverage remains the lowest-scoring industry, with an eNPS of 34 in the first half of 2026.

Healthcare shows the strongest recovery of any industry on a same-period basis—up 6.5 points (19.4%) H1 2025 to H1 2026, the largest percentage gain of the eight industries tracked.

Nonprofits are rebounding from a real trough—eNPS bottomed at 30 in September 2024 and has climbed to 38 in H1 2026. The nonprofit sector now sits mid-pack among the eight industries tracked, fully reversing its 2023 to 2024 decline.

Education has been comparatively stable on a full-year basis, with the smallest movement of any industry tracked.

Travel/Hospitality declined from the full year of 2025 to the first half of 2026, but did see a 1.7% bump from H1 2025 to H1 2026. The difference between full-year and half-year shifts points to the seasonality of this sector—such as booking and hiring cycles—likely impact employee sentiment.

All source data is from BambooHR’s eNPS platform, gathered between January 2019 and June 2026, and includes more than 1,400 companies, tracking anonymized responses from over 51,000 unique employees since January 2019. Data analyzed includes more than 2.5M self-reported eNPS scores.

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