Your Boss Isn't Investing in Your Skills — And the Data Proves It

There is a widely held assumption in the modern workplace: if you want to grow, your employer will help you get there. A new study from Indeed Hiring Lab dismantles that assumption with hard numbers. Across eight countries and nearly 40,000 employees, the research finds that while most workers place a high value on developing new skills, far fewer believe their employers share that commitment. In the United States, the gap is 19 percentage points. That is not a minor disconnect — it is a structural failure with real consequences for careers, retention, and the economy. And for workers without a college degree, the situation is even worse.

What Does the Indeed Hiring Lab Research Actually Show?

Published on April 14, 2026, the Indeed Hiring Lab report draws on a YouGov survey of 80,936 people across Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, conducted in May and June 2025. Researchers analyzed responses from 39,767 employees aged 25 and older — a sample large enough to draw meaningful cross-country comparisons.

The headline finding is striking: in the US, 67% of employees say that developing new skills is a personal priority. But only 48% say they believe it is a priority for their employer — a 19-point gap. That gap exists in every country surveyed, ranging from 3 to 19 percentage points.

Japan stands out at the other end of the scale, with just 22% of workers calling skill development a personal priority — the lowest globally. Yet even in a country with a long tradition of employer-led training, the same employer-worker disconnect is present. The data suggests this is not a cultural quirk. It is a near-universal dynamic.

Access to training is also deeply unequal. Across every country in the study, workers without a bachelor's degree are significantly less likely to receive employer-provided training than their degree-holding counterparts. The education gap in training access is largest in Australia and France, where the difference is 21 percentage points. In the US, it is 17 points. Ireland shows the smallest gap at 8 points, with 86% of degree holders receiving training compared to 78% without a degree.

This means the workers who arguably need training the most — those trying to move into better roles without the credential advantages — are the least likely to receive it from their employers.

Why Are Employers Failing to Deliver on Training?

The research is clear on the mechanics behind the gap, and it comes down to economic incentives. When employers are uncertain about how long a worker will stay, they have less reason to invest in that worker's development. Training has upfront costs and delayed payoffs. If a trained employee walks out the door and joins a competitor six months later, the employer absorbs the cost and someone else reaps the benefit.

This creates a damaging cycle. Employers under-invest in training because turnover is high. Workers leave because they see no path for growth. Turnover stays high. Training stays low. And so it continues.

The problem is sharpened by the prevalence of temporary and short-term contracts in many labor markets. When employment relationships are designed to be short-lived by default, firms have even weaker incentives to invest in developing the people they employ. The Indeed Hiring Lab research specifically calls out temporary contract culture as a structural driver of the training gap.

There is also a managerial blind spot at work. Managers often see training as a cost center rather than a retention and productivity tool. When budgets are cut, training programs tend to be among the first to go — even as exit interview data routinely shows that lack of growth opportunities is one of the top reasons employees leave.

Metaintro CEO Lacey Kaelani has highlighted how employers can use workforce intelligence to identify skills adjacencies — understanding which employees can be upskilled or promoted into current roles, and predicting talent gaps before they become critical. The data suggests most employers are simply not doing this work.

Can Policy Actually Fix the Training Gap?

The most provocative section of the Indeed Hiring Lab research is not the survey data — it is a companion working paper co-authored by economists from the WZB Berlin Social Science Center and Universidad Complutense de Madrid. The paper asks whether labor market policy can be a lever for increasing employer-provided training.

The answer, based on Spain's experience, is yes — but the mechanism matters enormously.

In 2022, Spain enacted a sweeping labor market reform that sharply restricted the use of temporary contracts and made permanent contracts the default employment arrangement. The researchers analyzed 3.1 million job postings from 2018 through 2024. Their findings: in occupations that had previously relied most heavily on temporary contracts, the share of job postings mentioning training nearly tripled — rising from around 3% to roughly 8% — and the pre-reform gap between high-temp and low-temp occupations had essentially disappeared by 2024.

To confirm this was the reform's effect and not a broader trend, the team compared Spain against France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. No comparable increase in training mentions was observed in those countries over the same period.

The logic is intuitive: when employers know workers are more likely to stay — because permanent contracts are the norm — the return on training investment improves. Employers become more willing to pay for skill development when they can reasonably expect to benefit from it.

This finding has significant implications for policymakers in countries where gig work, short-term contracts, and at-will employment are widespread. Mandating or incentivizing longer-term employment relationships may not just improve job security — it may directly increase the amount of training workers receive.

What Workers Can Do Right Now — Without Waiting for Their Employer

Policy changes take years. Your career cannot wait. Here is a practical framework for building skills when your employer is not stepping up.

Start with publicly available learning platforms. Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, edX, and Google Career Certificates offer hundreds of industry-recognized courses, many of them free or low-cost. These credentials carry real weight in hiring, particularly in tech, project management, data analytics, and digital marketing.

Look for employer-adjacent opportunities. Even if your employer does not run formal training programs, there are often budget codes for conferences, professional memberships, or industry certifications. Ask directly — the worst outcome is a no, and many managers will say yes simply because no one asked before.

Treat internal moves as skill-building. Lateral transfers, cross-functional project teams, and job shadowing are all forms of on-the-job development that employers often overlook as "training." Volunteering for projects outside your core role builds skills and visibility simultaneously.

Use government and nonprofit programs. In the US, the Department of Labor funds workforce development programs through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), which provides free job training and career services for eligible workers. Many states also run apprenticeship programs and community college partnerships specifically designed for working adults.

Build in public. Writing on LinkedIn about what you are learning, sharing insights from courses you have completed, and contributing to professional communities signals growth to future employers — even without a formal credential. This is especially valuable in fields where demonstrable skills matter more than certifications.

Target companies that actually invest in people. The Indeed Hiring Lab data confirms what most job seekers already sense: not all employers treat training the same way. When evaluating job opportunities, ask directly about professional development budgets, promotion-from-within rates, and specific examples of employees who have grown within the company. The answer will tell you a great deal about what your future at that organization would look like.

The training gap is real, documented, and widening. But it is not insurmountable. Workers who take ownership of their skill development — while also choosing employers who genuinely invest in growth — are best positioned to build durable, advancing careers regardless of where the economy heads next.

People Also Asked

Q: Why don't employers invest more in worker training?

A: According to the Indeed Hiring Lab research, the primary reason is economic incentive: employers fear that if they pay to train workers, those workers will leave and competitors will benefit. This incentive problem is strongest where temporary contracts are common, because short employment relationships reduce the expected return on any training investment.

Q: Which workers are most likely to miss out on employer-provided training?

A: Workers without a bachelor's degree are consistently the least likely to receive employer-provided training, across all eight countries in the Indeed Hiring Lab study. The gap is largest in Australia and France (21 percentage points) and smallest in Ireland (8 percentage points). In the US, degree holders are 17 percentage points more likely to receive training than their non-degree colleagues.

Q: What can I do to build skills if my employer doesn't offer training?

A: Start with free or affordable platforms like Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, and Google Career Certificates for structured learning. Ask your employer about any existing budgets for conferences, memberships, or certifications — many workers do not realize these exist. You can also target internal lateral moves, volunteer for cross-functional projects, and use government programs like WIOA-funded workforce development services in your area.

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