50+ Employee Development Statistics for 2026

Employee development has moved from a benefits conversation to a workforce-capability problem. Skills are changing, employees are searching outside company programs for learning, and managers often lack the time or support to make development part of everyday work.

These statistics cover workplace learning, career growth, manager support, skills disruption, internal mobility and retention. They exclude training-market revenue estimates and consumer education statistics so the page stays focused on decisions employers can make.

Employee development statistics at a glance

1. Only 45% of U.S. employees participated in education or training to build skills for their current job in 2024. (Gallup)
2. 59% of CHROs said development was one of the employee-experience areas their organization struggled with most in Q1 2025. (Gallup)
3. That CHRO figure increased 16 percentage points from 2024. (Gallup)
4. Only 32% of employees hoping to move into a new role within a year strongly agreed they had the skills to excel in it. (Gallup)
5. Globally, only one in three employees strongly agree they have opportunities at work to learn and grow. (Gallup)
6. Only three in 10 strongly agree someone at work encourages their development. (Gallup)
7. In a 2025 ADP survey across 34 economies, only 24% of workers were confident they had the skills to advance to the next job level within three years. (ADP Research)
8. Only 17% strongly agreed their employer was investing in the skills they needed for career advancement. (ADP Research)

Participation and access to development

1. 58% of employees pursued at least one learning experience beyond the training formally offered by their employer. (Gallup)
2. 18% took an external technical-skills course. (Gallup)
3. 15% pursued a certification program. (Gallup)
4. 14% attended a professional conference. (Gallup)
5. 13% pursued continuing education. (Gallup)
6. 13% worked with a mentor or coach. (Gallup)
7. Fewer than 4% of workers were upskilled during their first two years with an employer in ADP's analysis of 51 million private-sector payroll records from 2019 to 2023. (ADP Research)
8. Nearly 75% of workers left an employer without ever receiving a promotion in ADP payroll data. (ADP Research)
9. Among millennials, only 39% strongly agreed they had learned something in the previous 30 days that could help them work better. (Gallup)
10. Fewer than half of millennials strongly agreed they had opportunities to learn and grow during the previous year. (Gallup)

Barriers to employee development

1. 89% of CHROs cited time away from job responsibilities as their organization's biggest learning obstacle. (Gallup)
2. 37% of leaders and managers called time their greatest barrier to supporting employee development. (Gallup)
3. 41% of employees identified time as their own top development obstacle. (Gallup)
4. 39% of CHROs identified direct-manager support as an organizational learning obstacle. (Gallup)
5. Gallup found that perceiving a supervisor as obstructing growth was the strongest predictor of an employee's intention to leave among the development barriers studied. (Gallup)
6. Fewer than half of managers worldwide had received management training in the Gallup research cited by the development study. (Gallup)
7. 60% of managers said they were not advanced or expert at developing employees and helping create career paths. (Gallup)
8. 40% of managers said they had not reached advanced or expert proficiency in engaging teams or managing performance. (Gallup)

Skills disruption and employer plans

1. The World Economic Forum projects that 59 of every 100 workers will need reskilling or upskilling by 2030. (WEF Future of Jobs Report 2025)
2. Of those 59 workers, 11 may not receive the training they need. (WEF)
3. That gap represents more than 120 million workers at medium-term risk of redundancy. (WEF)
4. Nearly 40% of skills required on the job are expected to change by 2030. (WEF)
5. 63% of employers identify skills gaps as a primary barrier to business transformation. (WEF)
6. 85% of employers planned to address skills gaps through workforce upskilling in a WEF summary of the 2025 report. (WEF)
7. 77% planned to provide AI-related training. (WEF)
8. 50% of employers planned to reorient their business around opportunities created by AI. (WEF)
9. 41% expected to reduce headcount where AI automates tasks. (WEF)
10. Almost half expected to move employees from AI-exposed roles into other parts of the business. (WEF)
11. Job disruption is projected to affect 22% of current jobs by 2030. (WEF)
12. WEF projects 170 million new roles and 92 million displaced roles, a net increase of 78 million. (WEF)
13. ADP found average salaries rose 37% when a worker moved up one O*NET job zone through upskilling. (ADP Research)

Development, performance and retention outcomes

1. Gallup projects an 18% increase in profit if an organization doubles the proportion of employees who feel they can learn and grow at work. (Gallup)
2. The same projection estimates a 14% productivity increase. (Gallup)
3. Gallup's Q12 analysis separately associates doubling learning-and-growth opportunity with 39% less absenteeism. (Gallup)
4. It associates the same shift with 36% fewer safety incidents. (Gallup)
5. Doubling the share who feel someone encourages their development is associated with 11% higher profitability. (Gallup)
6. It is also associated with 28% less absenteeism. (Gallup)
7. Organizations making a strategic investment in development reported 11% greater profitability in earlier Gallup research. (Gallup)
8. Those organizations were twice as likely to retain employees. (Gallup)
9. Workers who strongly agreed they had the skills to advance were five times more likely to say their job was safe. (ADP Research)
10. Workers who felt their employer invested in development were 5.3 times more likely to feel secure. (ADP Research)
11. Workers who felt secure were six times more likely to be fully engaged. (ADP Research)
12. They were 6.3 times more likely to be highly motivated and committed. (ADP Research)
13. They were 3.3 times more likely to describe themselves as highly productive. (ADP Research)
14. They were twice as likely to say they had no intention of leaving. (ADP Research)
15. They were 2.5 times less likely to feel overloaded or experience negative stress. (ADP Research)

Career conversations and preventable turnover

1. 51% of U.S. employees were watching for or actively seeking another job in Gallup's latest measure cited in 2026. (Gallup)
2. 42% of voluntary leavers said their manager or employer could have done something to prevent their departure. (Gallup)
3. 45% said no manager or leader proactively discussed their satisfaction, performance or future in the three months before they left. (Gallup)
4. Among leavers who had a manager conversation, only 29% discussed their future career with the organization. (Gallup)
5. Only 18% discussed what it took to be effective in their job. (Gallup)
6. Only 17% discussed what would persuade them to stay. (Gallup)
7. Career-advancement opportunities represented 11% of the actions preventable leavers said employers could have taken. (Gallup)
8. Combined compensation and career advancement accounted for two in five self-reported retention actions. (Gallup)

What employers should do with these findings

The data argue against treating development as a catalog of optional courses. A stronger system connects four layers:

1. Role capability: define the skills needed now and the evidence that demonstrates them.
2. Career direction: give employees a visible next-step path without implying that promotion is the only form of growth.
3. Work-based practice: use assignments, projects, mentoring and coaching alongside formal training.
4. Manager follow-through: review progress during recurring conversations and remove time, access or sponsorship barriers.

Give each development action an owner, target date and observable outcome. Then connect the evidence to ongoing feedback and the next performance conversation. EvalFlow supports this cycle through a unified performance management platform. See also our manager effectiveness statistics, one-on-one meeting statistics and employee feedback statistics.

Research note

The sources use different populations and methodologies. Gallup's workplace figures include employee and CHRO surveys plus modeled projections from its meta-analysis. ADP combines large payroll datasets with global sentiment surveys. WEF figures are employer forecasts through 2030, not observed outcomes. Associations and projections are labeled as such and should not be presented as guaranteed causal returns.

Frequently asked questions

What percentage of employees receive development training?

Gallup found that 45% of U.S. employees participated in education or training for their current job during 2024. The number does not capture every informal learning experience, and 58% said they pursued at least one opportunity beyond their employer's formal offer.

What is the biggest barrier to employee development?

Time is the most frequently reported obstacle across CHROs, managers and employees. Lack of manager support may be more damaging to retention, so employers need both protected learning time and accountable manager involvement.

Does employee development improve retention?

Multiple sources show strong associations. Gallup found strategically investing organizations were twice as likely to retain employees, while ADP found workers who felt invested in were much more likely to feel job-secure. These findings do not mean a course alone causes retention; relevance, access, manager support and internal opportunity matter.

What employee development metrics should HR track?

Track access and participation by employee group, skill evidence gained, completion of work-based practice, manager follow-through, internal moves, time to proficiency and retention. Course completions alone measure activity, not capability.