Increasing employee engagement on the job has been one of the hottest topics of the post-recession period. Yet despite the many reports, discussions, and the billions spent to drive greater engagement, the level of engaged U.S. workers has stalled.

That's what a massive global study on engagement by Aon Hewitt found. The study reported results by region, so the U.S. numbers are combined in a North American figure with Canada's. Assuming some continuity on both sides of the shared border, the results weren't stellar. Engagement rose just one percent from 2013 to 2014 in North America, to 66 percent.

Now, that's not a bad number overall. Highest engagement levels were reported in Latin America, at 71 percent. But that figure has dropped from 74 percent in 2012. In Europe, engagement levels have been stuck at 57 percent for the last three years, according to Aon Hewitt. Globally, Aon Hewitt estimated, engagement in work stood at 62 percent of workers in 2014 — up a single percent from the previous year.