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Between rising tariffs, an increased cost of living, and extensive federal layoffs, February felt pretty abysmal for many American workers. Now, theres data to show that it might have been one of the worst months in recent history for employee sentiment. Thats according to Glassdoors monthly Employee Confidence Index, a report that uses Glassdoors database of millions of employees’ reviews to get a real-time pulse on employee confidence in their companys six-month business outlook, according to the companys website. Last month, the share of employees reporting a positive six-month business outlook fell to 44.4%its lowest point since Glassdoor began publishing the index in 2016 (for context, the average outlook hovers around 50% positive). Sentiments were low across the board, but some industries were hit harder than others. These are the sectors where workers felt the most pessimistic about the coming months: Government and Public Administration Over the past several weeks, Elon Musks so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been on a mission to reduce waste by slashing tens of thousands of federal jobs, including gutting the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), halving the Department of Education, and laying off 10% of the workers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Not surprisingly, these massive cuts have resulted in rising job security fears among government employees. Employee confidence in the government and public administration sector plummeted by 4.9% month-over-month, bringing the total decline to 7.3% year-over-year. Cuts to the government workforce initiated by DOGE have thrown the future of the federal workforce into disarray, resulting in weakening sentiment, the report reads. Only 38.1% of government workers had a positive [six-month] outlook. Retail Dissatisfaction among government employees was matched only by retail workers. Similarly, only 38.1% of retail employees reported feeling positive about the futurethough, to be fair, thats only a 0.1% drop from this time last year. The retail industry has seen a barrage of headwinds in recent months. As the cost of living continues to rise, many consumers are opting to spend less, with major retailers including Walmart, Target, and Costco reporting noticeable dips in consumer spending last month. Meanwhile, the ongoing retail apocalypse has seen thousands of stores close across the nation, with companies like Joann fabrics and Party City going out of business entirely. Restaurants and Food Service Behind government employees and retail workers, food-industry employees were the third-most dissatisfied sector in the new report. The restaurant industry is currently facing down a number of potential tariffs that could make such products as coffee, tea, fruit, and vegetables much more expensive, and in some cases, inaccessible. Meanwhile, some of the nations largest fast-food chainslike McDonaldsare struggling to attract customers in an era of frugal spenders, who increasingly view meals on-the-go as a luxury.
Category:
E-Commerce
Shares of Docusign Inc. (NASDAQ: DOCU) surged nearly 18% on Friday, after the electronic signature service reported strong fourth-quarter earnings that beat expectations, partially driven by its new artificial intelligence-enabled platform, which it introduced last year. The e-signature company reported earnings of 86 cents per share, beating forecasts of 85 cents, with revenue coming in at $776 million, $15 million over forecasts for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, ending January 31. “Fiscal 2025 was a transformative year for Docusign,” CEO Allan Thygesen said in an earnings statement. “We launched Docusign IAM, our AI-powered agreement management platform, which is driving rapid traction with customers . . . We’re well positioned to pursue the significant opportunity ahead.” Docusign’s Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM) is an AI-powered platform that enables businesses to create, manage, and gain insights from their agreements in a full-suite, end-to-end platform, resulting in faster workflows and minimized risks. DocuSign AI uses both traditional AI to analyze existing data and content, and generative AI to create new content, such as text, based on patterns learned from existing data. In his earnings remarks, Thygesen said IAM has quickly become the fastest-growing new product in Docusigns history, and the company expects IAM to account for low double-digits of the company’s total growth by Q4. Its tremendously valuable, he told CNBC on Friday. Its opening a treasure trove of data . . . Were seeing excellent pickup. Another good sign for the company: Docusign is collaborating with Microsoft and Google, which are two of its biggest partners. Both integrate Docusign deeply into their office suites. Docusign’s customers number 1.6 million, and 1 billion people have used the service in over 180 countries, including 95% of Fortune 500 companies. The service is available in 44 languages for document signers and 14 languages for those sending documents, according to the company’s website.
Category:
E-Commerce
A U.S. influencer has united Australiaand much of the worldin outrage after filming and filming herself snatching a baby wombat from its mother and posting the clip online. The Montana-based content creator, known as Sam Jones, calls herself a “wildlife biologist and environmental scientist” on her now-private Instagram account. In a since-deleted video, shot in Australia, Jones is seen grabbing a baby wombat from its mother near a remote road at night. She runs back to her vehicle, holding the animal up to the camera, as the mother wombat runs after them. “I caught a baby wombat,” Jones exclaimed in the video. The animal appeared to be distressed in the clip, wriggling and hissing. A man behind the camera can be heard laughing: “Look at the mother, he said, it’s chasing after her!” The baby appears to be a common wombat, which is a protected marsupial found only in Australia. According to BBC news, the caption of the now-deleted post read: “My dream of holding a wombat has been realised! Baby and mom slowly waddled back off together into the bush.” Responding to early criticism, Jones defended her actions in the videos comments. “The baby was carefully held for one minute in total and then released back to mom,” she wrote. “They wandered back off into the bush together completely unharmed. I don’t ever capture wildlife that will be harmed by my doing so.” That didnt stop the user backlash and Jones, who has more than 92,000 followers on Instagram, made her account private. But the videoand other posts allegedly from her account, including images of her holding an echidna and a “little shark”continue to circulate online. On Friday morning, ABC Australia sent out a news alert saying the influencer had left Australia voluntarily, as a petition calling for her deportation amassed over 39,000 signatures. Theres never been a better day to be a baby wombat in Australia, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke responded to news of her departure, according to the Associated Press. Earlier that day, Burke confirmed that authorities were reviewing Joness visa conditions for potential breaches of immigration law. “I can’t wait for Australia to see the back of this individual, I don’t expect she will return,” he said in the statement received by the Associated Press. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also weighed in. “I suggest to this so-called influencer, maybe she might try some other Australian animals, take a baby crocodile from its mother and see how you go there, he said. “Take another animal that can actually fight back, rather than stealing a baby wombat from its mother. See how you go there.”
Category:
E-Commerce
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