October 19, 2026
October 19, 2026
Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash
Everything is happening slowly and quickly all at once.
The labor market’s slowing churn has had many freaking out: Turnover is essentially flat, as hires and total separations (quits, layoffs, firings, retirements) have barely outpaced each other over the last few years.
That slowing movement is reflected in data from Workday’s latest Global Workforce Report. Job creation was down 4% year over year on the tech giant’s own platforms. And an analysis of the same data found that promotions had remained relatively flat year over year: Around 51% of employers increased their promotion rates, while 49% saw fewer. Similarly, 57% of employers made fewer lateral internal hires than the year prior.
While many organizations have seen internal movement stall, they and their employees are currently experiencing a lot of change in their current roles, Phil Willburn, Workday’s VP of people systems, intelligence, and support, told HR Brew.
Big changes. Around 40% of employees said they witnessed reorganizations and restructuring within the last year, Workday’s survey found. Similarly, a Mercer report published earlier this year found that 98% of executives were planning to make organizational design changes within the next two years.
Unsurprisingly, AI is at the forefront of most of this change, particularly as it augments certain tasks and humans’ workloads. Of employees using AI for much of their work, 76% said they expect it will open career opportunities, but 62% also said the technology will lessen the value of their current skills.
“While at the surface level looks calm underneath. Everybody’s trying to figure out: What is the impact of AI? How does it affect the role or job that I have, and how does that impact the value chain?’” Willburn said, adding that employees are wondering: “What does that mean for me in my role, and what does that mean for the company who’s managing this?”
Clashing expectations. At the same time, workers are also getting frustrated over the fact that the traditional ways of growing within a company (i.e., getting promoted or moving into another role) are out of reach. Just 63% of employees said that they see a path to advancement within their current organization, according to Workday’s report.
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