Requisitions and job offers are still growing, or in other words, the world is still hiring – according to Workday’s Global Workforce Report.

But there are nuances. The pace of growth has slowed and hiring decisions are taking longer. Beneath the steady surface, a quiet shift is unfolding: uncertainty is reshaping how organizations think about talent, skills, and the future of work.

To understand what HR needs to know, UNLEASH spoke exclusively to Phil Willburn, Vice President of People Analytics at Workday.

Retaining high performers

Compared to 2024, the rate of hiring growth has slowed. Yet both job requisitions and offers continue to climb, signalling a cooling – not a collapse – in demand for talent.

The biggest change the labor market has seen over the past 12 months is that organizations are taking longer to decide on the type of worker they need to hire as hiring processes are slowing down.

“We don’t know exactly why, but our hypothesis is that uncertainty in the labor market, the economy, and business outlook is causing hesitation,” Willburn explains. “Hiring managers may also be less certain about the skills needed for a given role.

“And because the pace of hiring is slowing, each hire becomes a bigger bet. That pressure likely contributes to the longer decision-making process. So from a labor market perspective, the change isn’t dramatic – it’s a slight slowing, not a cliff drop.”

However, Willburn explains that the real story isn’t external – it’s internal – stating the “crisis is happening inside organizations”.

To highlight this, Workday identifies three the three red flags of talent strategy: top talent leaving, dead-end career growth, and AI strategy being lost in translation.

This is a key area of interest as last year, Workday reported that 75% of industries had rising high-performer turnover. This year, that’s increased to 100%.

“That’s alarming,” Willburn says. “High performers carry the heaviest workloads and deliver the greatest impact, yet they’re leaving even in a softer labor market.”

Another key issue is declining internal mobility.

Internal hiring was steadily rising for years, but Willburn states that there has been a drop over the past year, mainly due to lengthy external hiring timelines, and because hiring managers are conflicted as to what skills to prioritize in an AI-driven world.

But there’s also fewer promotions, with Willburn stating “almost every industry reported decreases”.

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