Worker confidence edged downward for the second consecutive quarter, leaving US workers cautious about their current and future employment prospects, according to the US Worker Confidence Index released by staffing provider Yoh, a division of Day & Zimmermann, and HRO Today magazine.

The index fell 2.2 points to  108.7 in the second quarter.

Yoh noted this is the first time the Worker Confidence Index has registered consecutive quarterly declines since the early days of the pandemic, when it fell for three straight periods from the fourth quarter of 2019 to the second quarter of 2020.

“While it may be somewhat soon to use the latest Worker Confidence Index results to make any sweeping changes to the way organizations manage and acquire talent, it is never the wrong time to start a dialogue with your hiring managers about critical talent needs, especially in high-demand, high-impact technology areas,” Yoh President Emmett McGrath said in a press release.

Yoh’s Worker Confidence Index is based on a survey of workers and gauges full-time workers’ perceptions of four key aspects of worker confidence: perceived job security, perceived likelihood of a promotion, perceived likelihood of a raise and overall trust in company leadership.