Press release
New Workday Global Research: Stalled Career Growth Is Driving Top Talent to Quit
Promotions are Down in 10 of 11 Industries, and Internal Hiring has Fallen 8% Employees are Feeling Anxious About Unclear AI Strategies PLEASANTON, Calif.,
About this update from Workday, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"Promotions are Down in 10 of 11 Industries, and Internal Hiring has Fallen 8% \nEmployees are Feeling Anxious About Unclear AI Strategies \nPLEASANTON, Calif., Sept. 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ: WDAY), the AI platform for managing people, money, and agents, today released the next iteration of its Global Workforce Report, which uncovers a talent crisis building inside organizations. While employment statistics point to a cooling labor market, Workday data shows a different kind of pressure building inside companies: a continued exodus of top performers, stalled career mobility, and AI strategies that leave employees feeling disconnected.\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \nThe report, \"The Hidden Talent Drain: Reinvesting in Employee Growth to Unlock Your AI Advantage,\" uncovers a critical disconnect. As leaders fixate on hiring challenges, they're missing the real threat: an internal drain of talent that is reshaping organizations from the inside out. It's a silent crisis, where unclear career paths and a lack of direction are driving away high performers eager to grow. The problem isn't opportunity—it's the failure to connect people to company strategy at the very moment AI is accelerating change and uncertainty.\n\"AI may be rewriting the rules of work, but it cannot replace the value of engaged, motivated people,\" said Ashley Goldsmith, chief people officer, Workday. \"The companies that succeed will retain top talent, create meaningful growth opportunities, and have a clear strategy for human-AI partnership that drives results.\"\nData from Workday Recruiting, HiredScore, Workday Peakon Employee Voice, and Workday People Analytics – aggregated from hundreds of millions of anonymized transactions and interactions across a range of companies and employees globally – identify three urgent challenges for organizations:\nThe Best People are Leaving. High performers were leaving with increasing alarm across 75% of industries last year. That trend is growing, with attrition rates up across 100% of industries this year. The most significant increases were in retail (64%) and healthcare (28%). Replacing them is harder than ever: more than half of open roles now take over 30 days to fill, and a quarter stretch past 60 days, highlighting the challenge of finding and securing new talent.Internal Career Growth Has Stalled. Hi...