We wrap up skills stats including soft skills statistics, reskilling statistics and stats around digital skills, so you can feel better prepared to upskill your learners.
L&D isn’t just about offering training programmes. We know that.
The goal?
To create a culture of continuous learning that drives business outcomes.
It’s easily said, but it’s less easily achieved.
So, what do the numbers say?
Here’s a stat to get your attention: companies that invest heavily in L&D see 24% higher profit margins on average compared to those that don’t.
In this blog, we’ll unpack the key statistics that define the state of L&D in 2026, with insights designed to inform your strategies and inspire action.
Whether you’re looking to boost retention, improve engagement, or future-proof your workforce, these numbers tell a story you won’t want to miss.
In this blog, we’ll run you through:
- Key skills statistics every CEO needs to know
- Statistics around digital skills
- Soft skills statistics
- Reskilling or upskilling statistics
Let’s get started.
Key skills statistics
As LinkedIn’s Chief Economist Karen Kimbrough said: “As jobs evolve and demand new skills, hiring managers will need to increasingly focus less on traditional proxies like degrees, and more on finding talent whose current skills match the role.”
But how are organisations faring with this change?
PWC’s 2021 Future of Work and Skills Survey showed that the most significant challenge was being able to identify the skills that workers will need in the future as technology advances.
A report by Deloitte shared the same sentiment: “Only 17% of organisations believe they’re able to anticipate the skills they’ll require to any great extent, and only 16% expect to make significant investments in learning over the next three years.”
If you’re going to take anything away from this roundup, take these key skills statistics with you:
- 88% of young people (aged 16-24) think digital skills will be essential to their careers
- An estimated 20% of the workforce in the UK will be significantly underskilled for their jobs by 2030
- The world will need to reskill more than 1 billion people by 2030 because of technology-led changes in the workplace
- 58% of the workforce needs new skills to get their jobs done
- The skill sets for jobs have changed by around 25% since 2015. By 2027, this number is expected to double
- 54% of companies globally are struggling to find skilled workers – the highest in a decade
- 74% of CEOs were concerned about the availability of key skills
The trends are obvious.
There are fears around digital transformation and how the workforce can keep up.
This changing skills landscape can be a challenge for your L&D team. That’s why equipping them with the right tools is so important.
💡 Pro Tip
Considering an LMS for your team? Or looking for a better solution? Here’s how a BuildEmpire LMS can help you achieve your goals
Digital skills statistics you need to know
One area that crept up consistently when looking at the skills gap was digital skills.
In fact, 27% of UK workers say that they lack the sufficient digital skills required for their job role.
But what’s the effect of this?
Well, according to 58% of workers, that lack of digital skills has affected them negatively in the workplace.
Whether that’s not being able to complete their job to a high level, being passed over for promotion or just generally finding barriers in their day-to-day, the impact of digital skills is huge.
But where is the gap coming from?
According to workers, employers aren’t providing them with training to improve their skills.
Investing in your people is key.
But enabling them with digital skills is especially important.
88% of young people (aged 16-24) think that digital skills will be essential to their careers. Plus, by 2025, COVID-19-related economic uncertainty and increasing automation and digitisation will cause 85 million jobs to be displaced worldwide and 97 million new ones to be created.
And so, you can see the future scope of digital skills and why it’s an essential thing to invest in.
Essential skills gap statistics
We know that the skills landscape is changing.
So do businesses.
Related: What is the skills gap and how to identify it
46% of business leaders said the skills gap has been wider at their organisation since 2021.
And as companies grow and develop, they need to continually ensure that their people are enabled to perform their job well.
That comes down to having the right skills and competencies in place.
87% of executives said they were experiencing skill gaps in the workforce or expected them within a few years.
But less than half of the respondents were clear about how they planned to address the problem.
And the problem isn’t just specific to current employees.
83% of HR leaders reported that they had trouble recruiting suitable candidates in the preceding 12 months, with 75% of those reporting recruitment difficulties saying that they believed there was a skills shortage among their applicants.
For workers who will remain in their roles till 2026, the share of core skills that will change is 40%, and 50% of all employees will need reskilling.
Reskilling and upskilling statistics
Reskilling is a growing trend in the workplace, especially considering the expanding skills gap.
But what’s the argument for reskilling vs upskilling?
These reskilling statistics might help tell the tale more accurately.
According to Go Globe, up to 1.4 million workers will need reskilling by 2026.
79% of L&D professionals agree that it is less expensive to reskill a current employee than to hire a new one.
And as we consider the growing trends in digital skills and the looming skills gap, it seems more likely that reskilling will hold more power than upskilling.
According to Deloitte, 74% of organisations say reskilling their workforce is important or very important to their success over the next 12-18 months, while just over half say that between half and all their workforce will need to change their skills and capabilities in the next three years.
But why reskilling over upskilling?
Well, remember when we said 1.4m will need reskilling? That’s because for up to 70% of them, their job type will cease to exist.
But not everyone is jumping to reskill.
In 2020, Amazon announced it was investing more than $700 million to provide upskilling training to its employees. And in 2019, JP Morgan Chase announced that it would invest $350 million to upskill its workforce.
74% of employees are ready to learn new skills or re-train to remain employable in the future so make the most of your talent pool and develop them where appropriate.
Soft skills statistics
Practical skills, or hard skills, are on the rise as we know. But what about soft skills?
Related: What’s the difference between hard and soft skills?
According to Josh Bersin, 89% of workers surveyed said bad hires typically have poor soft skills.
And, going back to digital skills, when we consider how technology and automation will change the job market, 92% of talent professionals and hiring managers agree that candidates with strong soft skills are increasingly important.
This is increasingly important for leaders.
Leadership soft skills are considered the most important soft skill for managers in the workplace to possess, followed by verbal communication and teamwork skills
And nearly a third of UK adults believe empathy is the most important soft skill their manager could possess.
But what’s the reason to prioritise skills anyway?
Benefits of focusing on skills
Skills will always be important in the workplace.
But what are the actual benefits?
Here are some statistics highlighting the impact of skills in an organisation.
Using a skills-based approach predicts job success for entry-level employees five times better than education requirements.
In the 12 months ending June 2021, LinkedIn saw a 21% increase in job postings advertising skills and responsibilities instead of qualifications and requirements.
Plus, the number of positions that don’t require a degree increased by nearly 40%.
Here are some more other important statistics to take note of:
- Companies that excel at internal mobility because they follow a skills-based approach retain employees for an average of 5.4 years, nearly twice as long as companies that struggle with it.
- 87% of workers believe they will need to develop new skills throughout their working lives to keep up with the changes in the workplace.
- 41% of respondents recognise that they have the skills they need to thrive for a maximum of four years.
- Employees who feel that their skills are not being put to good use in their current job are 10 times more likely to be looking for a new job.
- Only 47% of workers surveyed think that their company is making a significant investment in their professional development.
- Less than 40% of executives are happy with their organisation’s investment in their development.
How to prioritise skills development in your workplace
Development has to come from the top.
Your leaders need to be prioritising training, skills development and advancement in order to better engage your teams.
But it’s easy to say it.
How do you actually do it?
Well, the first thing is to get stats and data. Of course, a lot of the ones mentioned above should help you build a strong case.
But you can also check out our blog on the stats and data you need to make a business case for a new (or improved) LMS.
Getting buy-in is essential.
From there you can create or utilise tools within your LMS that will help you push skill and competency development. Read more about Totara Perform which helps business leaders and L&D teams combine learning and performance.
Or, book a demo to see how we use Totara to deliver our LMS features.