The one word that sums up the job market in 2025

The big picture: Those with jobs are anxious about holding on to them for a while, and now they are burning out.

• Glassdoor's word of the year in 2023 was "anxiety."
• "We've had a lot of sustained anxiety and that sustained anxiety is leading to fatigue," says Chris Martin, lead researcher on Glassdoor's economic research team.

How it works: Each year, the team at Glassdoor looks at a list of terms to see which had the strongest growth in posts, comments and reviews on the jobs site.

• Then they cogitate on which best captures the dominant theme shaping workplace culture and sentiment.
• They've been doing this since 2022. That year's word was "return-to-office." (OK, that's really three words.)
• Last year's word was "divisive."

By the numbers: This year, mentions of the word "fatigue" were up 41% — not as high as tariff (up 860%) or agentic (an AI word) up 2,244% — but more work-y.

• Also coming in hot this year — "stagflation," a term associated with the 1970s, when both unemployment and inflation were skyrocketing.
• So far this year, while inflation is still running high, the unemployment rate is well below its 20th century peaks.
• The words "misaligned" and "disengagement" were also up from last year, but who really knows what those terms mean outside of a LinkedIn post, Zoom meeting or Slack channel.

Between the lines: As the end of 2025 approaches, everyone's out there hawking their one word that sums up the year.

• The Economist says it's "slop," as AI junk proliferates. "We thought about that one," Martin acknowledges, but says that it was too narrowly tech focused.
• Oxford went with "rage bait" — stuff that makes you angry online.
• Dictionary.com chose "6 7" for its word of the year. It should be noted that those are not quite words, nor does anyone over 18 years of age know what they mean.

The bottom line: Workers are tired of the weak job market, but websites never seem to lose enthusiasm for year-end trend spotting.