Daniel Zhao

@danielzhao.bsky.social

3701 Followers 472 Following

Glassdoor Chief Economist glassdoor.com/research I post charts about the job market and workplace trends Formerly known as @DanielBZhao on Twitter Maryland born & raised, now in NYC

Line chart showing quarterly employee count at Alphabet sourced for Alphabet earnings releases. Line rises steadily linearly from Q4 2017 through end of 2021 before spiking in 2022, decreasing in Q1 2023, plateauing in 2023 and then slowly returning to growth in 2025 and 2026.
Quote from Atlanta Fed section of Federal Reserve's July 2026 Beige Book: "Restaurants reported shifts toward value among higher-end customers, with some diners opting to bring their own wine and pay a corkage fee rather than purchasing wine with their meal."
Quote from Richmond Fed section of July 2026 Beige Book: "A regional poultry supplier saw increased sales of premium lean proteins which they attributed to the rise in GLP1 use that necessitates a higher protein diet."
Bar plot titled “Tech support and installation jobs drive data center hiring demand” shows the top occupation categories, by share, of all data center postings, year-to-date. IT Infrastructure, Operations & Support, and Installation & Maintenance together account for half of all data center postings.
Line chart titled “Data center postings have surged past total and the rest of tech” shows the indexed level of job postings for roles related to data centers compared to the path of total postings and postings in tech from June 2024 to June 2026. Data center job postings have increased markedly, especially over the past twelve months, while total and other tech postings have fallen.
stacked 100% area chart from NY Fed May 2026 survey showing 47% of service firms that have directly paid tariffs over the last 12 months still expect more pass-through (i.e., more tariff price increases planned) in the future. similarly, 44% of manufacturers similarly expect more pass-through.
line chart showing glassdoor employee confidence index updated through june 2026. latest value shows 44% of employees reported 6-month business outlook for their employer. trend is of a moderate decline since mid-2025 to present with May 2026 setting a record low in data stretching back to 2016
screenshot of research summary conclusion: "Early work exposure has become increasingly rare among teenagers. Summer youth employment programs make it easier for youth to find jobs and, unlike year-round undertakings, they happen when youth are likely to be idle rather than competing with academic studies or extracurricular activities. The evidence to date indicates that summer youth employment programs have the potential to reduce delinquent behavior, enhance academic aspirations and performance, and improve social and emotional development. Compared to more targeted behavioral programs, SYEPs provide job experience that may also lead to a future career or post-secondary education. Moreover, these programs help families at or near the poverty line by providing income to teens — of whom half report paying one or more household bills. Finally, these programs supply low-cost workers to community-based programs such as summer camps that provide inexpensive daycare for working parents. While evidence of the long-term effects in education or employment is mixed, the positive impacts associated with the reduction in crime indicate that the benefits of summer jobs programs exceed the costs. Looking ahead, SYEPs can lay a strong foundation upon which additional interventions can be layered to achieve more sustained and meaningful outcomes — perhaps by providing greater linkages between summer and year-round employment programs, full-time work, community college enrollment or apprenticeships."
Chart from Pew Research Center showing spike in fireworks-related ER visits on July 4 which is large enough to significantly increase overall ER visits on July 4 above the baseline.
Stacked bar chart showing the share of mentions of "AI" in Glassdoor reviews that are positive, mixed or negative. in 2022, 72% of mentions were positive vs. 24% negative. that sentiment has steadily worsened. in 2026 YTD, it is 43% positive vs. 53% negative
line chart showing share of Glassdoor reviews that mention related terms. "AI" as a topic has surged 240% (3.4 times) year-over-year as of May 2026. "Inflation" and "burnout" topics have increased in 2026, but "AI" now exceeds them in level. "Layoffs" as a topic is still at the top.
screenshot of BLS real earnings release. Chart shows month-over-month change in real average hourly earnings for all employees, seasonally adjusted, with declines of -0.6%, -0.5%, -0.1% in March, April, May 2026 respectively
4 panel chart from research discussed in post. Description from the authors: "Notes: The figure plots values for four daily sentiment indexes and compares them with the preliminary and final values of the University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment. The Michigan index values in each panel of the figure (rescaled Michigan index) were aligned to the last day of the survey windows for the University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers and were rescaled to have the same mean and standard deviation as the daily indexes. Sources: Authors’ calculations based on data from Haver Analytics, Rasmussen Reports, Morning Consult, Goldman Sachs, and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco."
3 panel plot from original research. Descriptively, the charts show a divergence between the University of Michigan consumer sentiment measure and the authors' measure that combines other consumer sentiment measures to correct for this divergence. The charts show that the gap aligns with when the Michigan survey methodology changed but has also widened further since then. Michigan sentiment data is near historic lows while the adjusted index is below 2019 levels, but not significantly worse than the last few years Author description of plots & panels are as follows: "The figure plots in panel A daily values for the Composite Consumer Sentiment Index (C-CSI) and compares them with the preliminary and final release values of the University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment from the Surveys of Consumers. The Michigan index values are aligned to the last day of their respective survey windows, with the dashed vertical line indicating when the survey transitioned to being conducted online in April 2024. The light gray shaded regions in panels A and B correspond to 95% confidence intervals for the C-CSI values. Panel B shows the bias-adjusted Michigan index values implied by the C-CSI compared with the published preliminary and final monthly release values for the Michigan index. In panel C, the estimated measurement error in the Michigan index is shown and decomposed by source: survey methodology (Michigan, Morning Consult, and Rasmussen Reports indexes) and vibes (Conference Board, Goldman Sachs, and San Francisco Fed indexes). See the text for further details. Sources: Authors’ calculations based on data from Haver Analytics, Rasmussen Reports, Morning Consult, Goldman Sachs, and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco."
Screenshot of quote tweeted article. Highlighted quote: "Even more problematic, Dr. Green’s research shows that A.I. has the largest homogenizing impact on students who are farthest from the mean and have unique perspectives"
Screenshot of quote tweeted article. Relevant quotes: "Georgetown University neuroscientist Adam Green ... and his team examined personal statements from more than 370,000 [college-bound high school] students, and found that after ChatGPT became available, their essays suddenly used diverse and colorful language, but lacked truly creative ideas ... In a separate study, the team found that human-written essays offered up to eight times more new ideas than those produced by A.I."