The talent shortage may not be a shortage of people. It may be a shortage of reach. 84% of executives struggle to find skilled talent in their markets, while 62% of employees are open to relocating for better opportunities. As AI and employee expectations evolve, organisations need to rethink how they find and understand talent.
Global Employment Trends in 2026
The numbers point to several changes in how organisations find, attract and retain talent. For HR leaders, these shifts offer a clearer picture of what the global workforce may demand in 2026.
Here are five key employment trends to watch:
1. Global Talent Pools Are Becoming Essential
The traditional local-first approach to hiring is under pressure. G-P’s World at Work Report found that 84% of executives have difficulty finding skilled talent in their existing markets.
That makes access to talent just as important as the size of the local talent pool. Organisations that expand their search across borders can tap into specialised skills, different perspectives and candidates who may not be available locally.
Global hiring also gives employers more flexibility when demand for certain skills rises quickly. Instead of competing for the same limited group of candidates, companies can look at where the skills actually exist and build a strategy around those markets.
For HR leaders, the question is becoming broader than “Who can we hire here?” It is increasingly “Where can we find the skills our organisation needs?”
2. Career Opportunity Is Making Talent More Mobile
A better career opportunity can now mean more than a promotion or a new title. For many employees, it can also mean moving to a different country.
G-P found that 62% of employees would be willing to relocate internationally if their employer offered an opportunity for career advancement. Among millennials, that figure rises to 71%.
This creates an opportunity for employers that can connect talent mobility with career development. International assignments, cross-border teams and opportunities to work in new markets can make an organisation more attractive to ambitious employees.
It also changes how companies think about recruitment. The strongest candidate for a role may be willing to move for the right opportunity, while an existing employee may be willing to relocate if it gives them a clearer path forward.
Talent mobility, therefore, is becoming part of the employee value proposition, not simply an operational decision.
3. AI Is Increasing the Value of Human Skills
AI may automate parts of a job, but new evidence suggests it is also increasing the value of the skills that machines cannot easily replicate.
PwC’s 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer, which analysed more than one billion job advertisements across 27 countries, found that the skills required in the most AI-exposed jobs are changing more than twice as fast as those in the least AI-exposed jobs. AI-exposed entry-level roles are also seven times more likely to require traditionally senior skills such as leadership and judgement.
This has an important implication for hiring: technical capability alone is not enough. As AI takes on more routine tasks, organisations need people who can interpret information, make decisions, communicate effectively and handle situations that require context and judgement.
Recruitment technology can support this shift by helping employers assess those capabilities more consistently.
C-Factor AI by The Talent Games brings AI-powered assessments, interviews and talent intelligence together to help organisations gather deeper evidence about candidates while keeping human judgement at the centre of talent decisions.
The goal is not to make recruitment less human. It is to give recruiters better information so they can spend more time on the decisions that require human understanding.
4. Employees Are Looking Beyond the Paycheck
A competitive salary can attract talent, but it may not be enough to keep it.
Employees are increasingly thinking about what they will gain from staying with an organisation: relevant skills, career progression, meaningful work and the ability to remain prepared for what comes next.
Mercer’s Global Talent Trends 2026 found that 53% of employees worry about lacking future-ready skills, while 63% said they would hypothetically trade a 10% pay increase for opportunities to develop AI and digital skills. Mercer
That finding says something important about retention. Employees are not only evaluating what an organisation gives them today. They are also considering whether it is helping them remain valuable tomorrow.
This makes learning and development a retention strategy, not simply an HR benefit.
As Paul Keijzer, CEO of The Talent Games, puts it:
“Great workplaces are still built by people who believe in people.”
Technology can help organisations understand workforce needs and identify gaps, but trust, growth and meaningful opportunities still shape the employee experience.
5. Workforce Planning Must Account for Uncertainty
A stable employment rate does not necessarily mean a healthy labour market.
The International Labour Organization projects global unemployment to remain at 4.9% in 2026, but its latest Employment and Social Trends report warns that this stability is fragile. The global jobs gap, which includes people who want paid work but cannot access it, is projected to reach 408 million people this year.
For employers, the lesson is not simply to prepare for the next disruption. It is to build a workforce that can adapt when disruption happens.
That means knowing which skills are available internally, where capability gaps exist and how employees can move into emerging roles. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 found that 63% of employers see skills gaps as a major barrier to business transformation, while 85% expect upskilling to be a major workforce strategy through 2030.
Workforce planning, therefore, needs to look beyond today’s vacancies. Organisations also need to consider which capabilities they will need next and how they can develop them before the gap becomes a problem.
The more uncertain the workplace becomes, the more valuable an adaptable workforce becomes.
G-P reports that 64% of executives feel their companies are not built to withstand disruption.
For HR teams, this creates a workforce planning challenge. Organisations need people who can adapt when roles, technologies and business priorities change.
That makes skills such as adaptability, problem-solving, communication, collaboration and judgement increasingly important. It also means companies need better visibility into the capabilities they already have and the capabilities they may need in the future.
Hiring for today’s job description alone may not be enough. Organisations need to think about whether candidates and employees can continue learning as the work itself evolves.
What These Employment Trends Mean for HR Leaders
The global employment trends of 2026 point to a common theme: organisations need to become better at finding, understanding and developing people.
Talent pools are becoming more global. Employees are more open to mobility. AI is becoming part of everyday work. Retention requires more than compensation. And uncertainty is making adaptability increasingly valuable.
None of these shifts means technology should replace human decision-making. Instead, they create a stronger case for using technology to give HR teams better information and more time to focus on people.
For organisations, the opportunity is to build a talent strategy that combines global reach, skills-based thinking, responsible AI and a stronger understanding of what people need to succeed.
The future of employment will not simply belong to organisations with access to more technology. It will belong to organisations that know how to use technology to understand people better.
FAQs
How should talent acquisition leaders adapt their workforce planning to persistent global skills shortages?
Talent acquisition leaders should move beyond vacancy-based planning towards a skills-first workforce strategy. This means mapping existing capabilities, forecasting future skills demand and identifying where talent can be sourced internally, locally or internationally. Combining skills data with business forecasts helps recruiters anticipate shortages rather than react to them after critical roles become difficult to fill.
How can organisations assess candidates consistently across different countries and labour markets?
Global recruitment requires assessment methods that account for differences in education systems, cultural contexts, language proficiency and access to opportunities. Standardised, job-relevant assessments and structured interviews can help create more consistent evaluation criteria. Employers should also validate assessment methods across candidate populations and monitor outcomes for potential adverse impact to support fairer, evidence-based decisions.
Which human skills should recruiters prioritise as AI adoption accelerates?
Recruiters should consider capabilities such as critical thinking, adaptability, communication, problem-solving and sound judgement alongside technical proficiency. The right priorities depend on the role, but organisations should assess how candidates apply these skills in realistic situations rather than relying solely on CV claims or self-reported competencies. As job requirements evolve, assessment frameworks should evolve with them.
How can talent acquisition teams measure the impact of AI on recruitment quality, not just hiring speed?
Time-to-hire and cost-per-hire are useful operational metrics, but they do not establish whether AI improves hiring outcomes. Recruitment leaders should also track quality of hire, assessment validity, candidate experience, selection rates across demographic groups, retention and recruiter decision consistency. Comparing these measures before and after implementation helps determine whether AI delivers meaningful improvements without introducing new risks.
How can organisations balance global talent mobility with internal talent development and retention?
A sustainable talent strategy treats external recruitment, international mobility and internal progression as connected parts of workforce planning. Leaders can use skills inventories and internal talent marketplaces to identify employees who could transition into emerging roles, while global sourcing fills gaps that cannot be addressed internally. Tracking internal mobility, critical-skill coverage and regretted attrition helps organisations understand whether their approach is building long-term capability rather than repeatedly competing for scarce talent.