The 27 Best Skills Gap Statistics (In One Blog Post)

44% of workers’ skills will be disrupted in the next five years.

Six in ten will need retraining before the end of 2027.

But only half have access to the opportunities they need today, according to the World Economic Forum.

That should worry everyone. The business. The manager. The employee.

‍HOWEVER, no one ever fixed a problem without the right context.‍

That’s why we’re going to take you through the big skills gaps statistics here.

By theme, with some insights on what it all means.
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The TL;DR on skills gap statistics

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• 38% of leaders say that the skills gap at their company has worsened in the last year, and 37% say the current shelf life of hard skills is under two years.

• Only 39% believe their employer invests in building the skills they need to advance their career - that number was 51% in 2023.

• Just 54% said their employer had given them sufficient opportunities to learn new skills, despite 74% expressing a desire to develop.

• 79% of UK employees think a new skill will help their career in the next 12 months, compared to just 67% who said a promotion would be best for their growth.
  

• The three biggest barriers to closing skills gaps are: Lack of budget (44%), a lack of team bandwidth to manage L&D programs (39%), and an inability to identify effective L&D solutions (33%).

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Skill disruption is happening harder and faster for businesses

Pace of change… faster than ever… you’ve heard it all before.

But the throwaway use of these terms hides a deeper and darker meaning among the skills gap statistics.

It means our skills become outdated much sooner.

Leaving us at risk of becoming redundant and irrelevant.

And businesses facing a lack of skills needed to compete, innovate and grab opportunities.

• 38% of leaders say that the skills gap at their company has worsened in the last year.
• 37% say the current shelf life of hard skills is under two years. (Source: Springboard’s The State of the Workforce Skills Gap 2024.)
• 61% of leaders believe employee skills sets will need to change completely or almost completely by 2030 (Source: Future of Work report by McLean & Company).

Business leaders recognise the severity of this too:

• 70% of leaders say there’s a skills gap, with over a third of leaders are reporting limited innovation and growth as a result.
• Nearly 40% of leaders say that the skills gap at their company has worsened in the last year (Source: Springboard’s The State of the Workforce Skills Gap 2024).
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Employees worry about their skills AND whether their employer can help

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• Just 54% of employers said their employer had given them sufficient opportunities to learn new skills… 
• Despite 74% expressing a desire to develop! (Source: Ipsos Karian and Box).
• According to KPMG, a third of employers (33%) don’t offer their employees regular opportunities to learn new skills.

What’s worse in employee faith in their employers is DECLINING.

• Only 39% believe their employer invests in building the skills they need to advance their career…
• That number was 51% in 2023.
• And 53% lack confidence that their employer is investing in their skills development in general (Source: ADP’s People at Work 2024: A Global Workforce View).

And according to LHH, (20%) cited limited opportunities in their own industries as having held them back in their career.

The same survey revealed that 54% of workers felt that external factors, “like company performance and the economy, had more control over their career than they did."

When you look at these skills gap statistics, one thing in clear:

Whatever employers are doing right now isn’t working! They’re either not offering enough OR what they are offering simply isn’t translating to skills, development or opportunities.
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Skills are so important to employees, they rank them above promotions

Promotions used to be the be all and end all.

Get one and you’re looking at more money, more status, more career opportunities.

BUT, employee now realise skills are the currency of growth and progress.

A promotion won’t protect your skills from becoming outdated.

In fact, you can argue it does your skills more harm than good…

If it takes you further away from day-to-day opportunities to apply what you learn, like a lot of traditional promotions do.

Recent research from Amazon showed the true extent of this:

• 79% of UK employees think a new skill will help their career in the next 12 months.
• Compared to just 67% who said a promotion would be best for their growth.

And further research from Randstad Risesmart showed why this is one of the biggest skills gap statistics we need to keep an eye on.

• 51% say they’re happy to stay in a role - even if there’s no room for progression.
• 72% want to improve their skills through training and development.

Not offering the chance to build skills is going to harm your retention in the short and long term.

Proven by the 26% of employees who say a lack of progression is influencing their levels of job satisfaction, according to ADP.
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The barriers to closing skills gaps are…

First of all, a big shout out to Springboard for diving into these in their State of the Workforce Skills Gap 2024 report.

Buy-in, budget and bandwidth seem to be the big reasons, with the rate of employee churn and struggles to find effective L&D solutions.

• 44% - Lack of budget
• 39% - Lack of team bandwidth to manage L&D programs
• 33% - Inability to identify effective L&D solutions
• 33% - High employee turnover
• 29% - Lack of support from leadership
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Companies are also struggling to get their skills initiatives to the impact stage fast enough!

They’re getting stuck in the planning and launch stages too often, as LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report 2024 shows:

Less than 5% make it to the measurement stage, making it one of the most alarm skills gaps statistics.

Everyone likes planning and strategising, but execution is where L&D can really help build skills.

And when skills translate to performance, it’s a clear case for our ROI.We have to address this one, if we’re going to solve the skills crisis.