UTAH, UNITED STATES — Using the Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS), BambooHR reported that employee satisfaction was at its highest average in 2025. However, this fulfillment wasn’t a constant across states in the U.S. and revealed a major risk in the labor market.
eNPS is a metric measuring employee satisfaction, loyalty, and engagement by asking how likely employees are to recommend their workplace to others.
According to BambooHR’s 2025 research, eNPS scores ranged from 20s to 60s, with the middle group averaging 43. There were no clear regional trends in employee satisfaction, with the happiest and unhappiest employees within the same region.
This 40-point gap separating the happiest from the unhappiest employees begs the question: Why are some states doing well, while others are doing poorly?
Employee Satisfaction Remains a Complex Concept
The data revealed a stark truth: employee satisfaction is complex, and there’s no single recipe to guarantee positive engagement.
It revealed that the following quality-of-life and intuitive factors do not significantly influence employee satisfaction.
- Personal fulfillment
- Community
- Emotional well-being
- Location
- Political inclination
- Income
So if it’s not these, what motivates happy workers?
Why This Matters to Employers
When examined, the eNPS scores with the turnover data revealed patterns that can be categorized into four major labor dynamics:
- Ideal stability
- Dynamism
- Acute attrition
- Hidden Risk
The largest group fell under states where employees reported being unhappy but weren’t leaving their current positions. This underscores the “hidden risk” within the labor market:
Low turnover doesn’t necessarily reflect high engagement. Employees often stay out of necessity rather than fulfillment, which puts employers at risk of quiet quitting and burnout.
The BambooHR research revealed that relying on isolated metrics can lead to false conclusions. For leaders, this means misunderstanding employee satisfaction is highly probable and can result in costly surprises.
