Global Workforce Survey and Upskilling – 53% of employees say that their job requires specialist training

Business leaders everywhere are prioritising transformation, but what if your most skilled people are more reinvention ready than your company culture is? And what if your employees say they are even more likely to quit now than they were last year—back when everyone thought the “great resignation” was at its peak?

We’ve organised this year’s survey summary into four actions that CEOs and other senior executives can prioritise to better understand what their employees want, learn what’s holding them back and—together with their people—make their organisations more reinvention ready.

Key findings

Transform or die: One-third of workers say their company won’t be economically viable in ten years’ time if it continues on its current course—comparable to the 39% of CEOs who said this earlier in 2023 in PwC’s 26th Annual Global CEO Survey. Notably, gen Z workers are the most pessimistic: 49% say their company won’t survive another decade without change.

Employees are restless: Despite recessionary worries and rising unemployment in some regions, 26% of all respondents say they are likely to change jobs in the next 12 months (up from 19% in our 2022 survey). The number is higher for younger employees, with 35% of gen Z and 31% of millennial respondents planning to change jobs.

Financial hardships increase: 14% of employees around the world struggle to pay bills every month, and another 42% say once they cover their expenses, they have little or nothing left over (up from 37% in 2022). One in five respondents says they have an extra job, in addition to their principal one.

Skills inequity on the rise: 53% of employees say that their job requires specialist training, up from 49% last year. Workers without specialist training are also more likely to be facing financial difficulties than specialist workers, and are less likely to have a clear sense of how their skills will change—all of which could further income inequality.

Workers aren’t afraid of AI: Despite the prospect of AI-fuelled job losses, respondents cite the positive impacts of AI more frequently than they do the negative ones. The most common sentiment, expressed by 31% of respondents, is ‘AI will help me increase my productivity/efficiency at work.’

Source: Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey | PwC