37 Employee Training Statistics and Trends for 2026

US companies spent $102.8 billion on training in 2024-2025, generative AI course enrollments grew 195% in a single year, and providing learning opportunities to employees is now the number one retention strategy. That is the short version of what this year's data says.

Below are 37 employee training statistics for 2026, organized by spend, productivity, AI, retention, career growth, and skills. Every source is linked in the numbered list at the bottom. This page is part of our wider set of online learning statistics.

The top 10 employee training statistics of 2026

US training expenditures reached $102.8 billion in 2024-2025, up nearly 5% (Training Magazine)
Generative AI course enrollments grew 195% year over year, passing 8 million on Coursera alone (Coursera Global Skills Report 2025)
88% of organizations are concerned about employee retention, and providing learning opportunities is the number one retention strategy (LinkedIn 2025 Workplace Learning Report)
Only 36% of organizations qualify as career development champions (LinkedIn 2025 Workplace Learning Report)
40% of today's skills are expected to become obsolete within five years (Right Management)
Companies that invest strategically in employee development report 11% greater profitability (Gallup)
Employees received an average of 40 hours of training in the past year (Training Magazine)
92.1% of hiring managers expect AI to impact their learning team within 12 months (Devlin Peck's ID Hiring Manager Report)
4 in 10 employees have no career plan at all (Right Management)
71% of L&D professionals are experimenting with or integrating AI (LinkedIn 2025 Workplace Learning Report)

Statistic	Source	Year
$102.8B in US training expenditures	Training Magazine Training Industry Report	2025
+195% growth in GenAI course enrollments	Coursera Global Skills Report	2025
88% of organizations concerned about retention	LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report	2025
36% of organizations are career development champions	LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report	2025
40% of skills expected to be obsolete within five years	Right Management (ManpowerGroup)	2025
11% greater profitability with strategic development investment	Gallup	n/a
40 hours of training per employee per year	Training Magazine Training Industry Report	2025
92.1% of hiring managers expect AI to impact their learning team	Devlin Peck's ID Hiring Manager Report	2024
4 in 10 employees have no career plan	Right Management (ManpowerGroup)	2025
71% of L&D pros experimenting with or integrating AI	LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report	2025

$102.8B

US training spend, 2024-2025

+195%

GenAI course enrollment growth

88%

of orgs concerned about retention

40%

of skills obsolete within 5 years

40 hrs

average annual training per employee

92.1%

of hiring managers expect AI impact

Building a business case? Pick what you are arguing for and who you need to convince, and this tool will shortlist the stats on this page that fit your audience.

What are you making a case for?

Who do you need to convince?

What kind of evidence works best on them?

Answer all three questions first.

Every statistic in this article

Turn on JavaScript to filter these to your business case. The full list is below either way.

#	Statistic	Source
1	Companies with formalized training earn 218% higher income per employee	Forbes
2	Companies are 17% more productive when employees get the training they need	Gallup
3	59% of employees say training improves their overall job performance	SurveyMonkey
4	68% of employees prefer to learn or train in the workplace	Research.com
5	40% of Fortune 500 companies use an LMS to stay competitive	Finances Online
6	Employees learn 70% of their skills on the job and only 10% in formal sessions	Docebo
7	92% of workers say workplace training positively impacts their engagement	Axonify
8	76% of Gen Z learners think learning is the key to a successful career	LinkedIn
9	39% of U.S. employees rank potential for future growth as the top job satisfaction factor	Research.com
10	59% of Millennials say learning and growing are extremely important when applying for a job	Gallup
11	Job skill sets have changed by around 25% since 2015	LinkedIn
12	85% of employees at companies with more than 50 people receive formal training	BLS
13	59% of employees report they have never had workplace training	Forbes
14	29% of workers are not optimistic about their upskilling or training opportunities	SHRM
15	43% of employees who received training found it ineffective	Axonify
16	39% of small businesses run classroom-led training while 17% use virtual classrooms	eLearning Industry
17	93% of workers want training that is easy to complete and understand	HR Dive
18	89% of workers want training available anywhere and anytime	HR Dive
19	74% of workers want to learn new skills, but only once per quarter	PwC
20	Over half of workers say they need more development opportunities to improve their work	SHRM
21	45% of employees are more likely to stay in their role if they receive more training	Built In
22	Over 90% of employees say they will not quit if they get development opportunities	LinkedIn
23	Employees at organizations with internal mobility stay 2x longer	LinkedIn
24	83% of HR managers say training is beneficial for employee attraction	SHRM
25	92% of survey respondents say training goals should reinforce a positive employee experience	SHRM

How much do companies spend on employee training?

US training expenditures rose nearly 5% to $102.8 billion in 2024-2025, per Training Magazine's 2025 Training Industry Report. The same report gives you the budget, per-learner, and hours benchmarks that most "average training spend" questions are really asking about.

Benchmark (2025)	Large companies	Midsize companies	Small companies
Average annual training budget	$11.7 million	$1.6 million	$333,305
Spend per learner	$468	$782	$1,091
Training staff payroll	$4 million	$965,731	$320,586

The report covers US organizations with more than 100 employees, weighted to reflect the actual market.

1. US training expenditures rose nearly 5% to $102.8 billion

(Training Magazine, 2025 Training Industry Report)

That figure covers all training-related expenditures for the year, including budgets, technology spending, and staff salaries. For the vendor-side view of the same spending, see this eLearning market size data.

2. Large companies budget $11.7 million a year for training on average

(Training Magazine, 2025 Training Industry Report)

Average training expenditures for large companies decreased from $13.3 million in 2024 to $11.7 million in 2025. Midsize companies stayed roughly flat at $1.6 million, and small companies ticked down to $333,305.

3. Companies spent an average of $874 per learner, up from $774 in 2024

(Training Magazine, 2025 Training Industry Report)

If you need a single per-employee spend benchmark, this is the one. Retailers and wholesalers spent the most per learner at $1,046, followed by services organizations at $944.

4. Employees received an average of 40 hours of training in the past year

(Training Magazine, 2025 Training Industry Report)

That is down from 47 hours the previous year. If your program delivers meaningfully less than a week's worth of training per employee per year, you are below the US benchmark.

5. Small companies spent $1,091 per learner, more than double the $468 at large corporations

(Training Magazine, 2025 Training Industry Report)

Per-learner spend runs opposite to company size: small companies spent $1,091, midsize companies $782, and large corporations $468. Scale buys efficiency, but it also dilutes attention per learner.

6. Small companies account for almost one-third of total US training spend

(Training Magazine, 2025 Training Industry Report)

Individually their budgets are the smallest, but there are 113,133 small companies in the report's weighted universe of 152,572 organizations. Vendors who only chase enterprise deals are ignoring a third of the market.

7. Services organizations delivered the most training, averaging 51 hours per employee

(Training Magazine, 2025 Training Industry Report)

Large services organizations went even further, averaging 62 hours per employee. That compares with the all-industry average of 40 hours.

8. The average training staff payroll at large companies is $4 million

(Training Magazine, 2025 Training Industry Report)

Midsize organizations average $965,731 in training staff payroll and small companies $320,586. People, not content licenses, remain the biggest line item in most training budgets.

How does employee training affect productivity and business results?

(Gallup)

Organizations that invest strategically in employee development report 11% greater profitability, according to Gallup. The 2025 and 2026 data adds revenue and engagement numbers on top of that.

9. Companies that invest strategically in development report 11% greater profitability

(Gallup)

Gallup's analysis of high-development workplaces ties strategic investment in employee development to 11% greater profitability, along with a doubled likelihood of retaining employees. This is the ROI anchor I trust most, because it comes from Gallup's own workplace research rather than a recycled decades-old study.

10. Only 36% of organizations qualify as career development champions

(LinkedIn 2025 Workplace Learning Report)

LinkedIn's 2025 Workplace Learning Report found that just over a third of organizations meet its bar for championing career development, and those that do report stronger business and talent outcomes. The gap between the champions and everyone else is the practical takeaway: most companies are leaving this lever untouched.

11. 60% of organizations with high-quality L&D report improved employee engagement

(HR.com, Future of Upskilling and Employee Learning 2025)

HR.com's 2025 upskilling research found that organizations rating their own L&D as high quality were far more likely to report engagement gains. The engagement effect showed up alongside retention and mobility improvements, covered below.

12. 51% of organizations reported revenue increases of 10% or more after adopting generative AI

(LinkedIn)

Per LinkedIn's research on AI adoption, over half of organizations that adopted generative AI reported double-digit revenue gains. Training is the bridge: the revenue shows up when people actually know how to use the tools.

What are the top AI training statistics?

Generative AI course enrollments grew 195% year over year and passed 8 million on Coursera alone, per the Coursera Global Skills Report 2025. AI is the fastest-moving category in all of this year's training data, and the training gap behind it is just as striking.

13. Generative AI course enrollments grew 195% year over year

(Coursera, Global Skills Report 2025)

Coursera reported that GenAI enrollments passed 8 million in total on its platform. The surge matches what we see across broader online learning trends: AI skills are pulling learners in faster than any other topic.

14. Enterprise GenAI enrollments grew 234% year over year

(Coursera, Job Skills Report 2026)

Employer-driven enrollments are growing even faster than individual ones. Companies are no longer waiting for employees to upskill themselves on AI.

15. 71% of L&D professionals are experimenting with or integrating AI

(LinkedIn 2025 Workplace Learning Report)

Learning teams are adopting AI on both sides of the desk: as a subject they teach and as a tool they build with. Per LinkedIn's 2025 report, the professionals designing training are now mostly hands-on with AI themselves.

16. Roughly 7 in 10 workers have had no formal AI training

(The Access Group / YouGov)

Research from The Access Group and YouGov, reported by HR Grapevine in 2026, found fewer than one in five workers (19%) have been through a formal AI training program. The rest are experimenting on their own, with whatever habits that produces.

17. Only about a third (34%) of organizations have a policy on generative AI use

(KPMG / University of Melbourne)

A large global study by KPMG and the University of Melbourne found that most organizations have not given employees formal guidance on generative AI. Usage is racing ahead of governance.

18. Almost half of employees admit to using AI at work inappropriately

(KPMG / University of Melbourne)

The same study found that while most people now use AI regularly at work, nearly half admit to using it in ways that break rules or good judgment. That is a training problem wearing a compliance costume.

19. 92.1% of hiring managers expect AI to impact their learning team within 12 months

(Devlin Peck's 2024 ID Hiring Manager Report)

According to Devlin Peck's 2024 ID Hiring Manager Report, which surveyed hiring managers who hire instructional designers, AI impact was near-unanimous even back in 2024. It was the clearest signal in the whole survey.

20. 89.2% of hiring managers believe AI is unlikely to shrink their learning team

(Devlin Peck's 2024 ID Hiring Manager Report)

The same 2024 survey found that hiring managers expected AI to change the work, not eliminate the workers. Two years on, that expectation has held up well from where I sit.

21. Branching complexity is the hardest part of building scenario-based training, per a poll of a few hundred workshop attendees

(Devlin Peck live workshop poll, April 2026)

When I polled the few hundred attendees at one of my live workshops in April 2026, branching complexity came out on top, with build time and making scenarios feel realistic as close seconds. That build pain is a big part of why AI-powered practice is growing so fast: it removes exactly the steps practitioners say hurt most.

22. More than 1,600 instructional designers are building AI simulations on devlin.ai

(devlin.ai platform data, mid-2026)

Disclosure: devlin.ai is my company, so treat this as a first-party number. It is an AI text and voice conversation simulation builder: you describe a scenario in plain English and get a working simulation that embeds in Storyline, Rise, or any LMS, with AI evaluation, transcripts, and scores reporting back to the course. We launched it in March 2026, and as of Summer 2026, over 1,600 instructional designers were building on the platform, which gives you one concrete data point on how quickly AI practice tools are being picked up.

How does training affect employee retention?

88% of organizations are concerned about employee retention, and providing learning opportunities is their number one retention strategy, per LinkedIn's 2025 Workplace Learning Report. The retention case for training is the strongest it has been in years.

23. 88% of organizations are concerned about retention, and learning is their top strategy for it

(LinkedIn 2025 Workplace Learning Report)

LinkedIn's 2025 report found retention concern is nearly universal, and providing learning opportunities ranked as the number one retention strategy. Retention pressure starts even earlier than training does; these employee onboarding statistics cover the front end of the same problem.

24. Organizations that invest strategically in development are twice as likely to retain employees

(Gallup)

This is the retention half of Gallup's high-development finding from stat 9. Development investment pays out twice: once in profitability, once in people who stay.

25. 59% of organizations with high-quality L&D report improved retention

(HR.com, Future of Upskilling and Employee Learning 2025)

Per HR.com's 2025 research, retention gains were one of the most commonly reported outcomes among organizations that rate their learning function as high quality. The upskilling-as-retention play is now mainstream practice, not theory.

26. 54% of organizations with high-quality L&D report improved internal mobility

(HR.com, Future of Upskilling and Employee Learning 2025)

The same study found over half of these organizations saw people moving into new internal roles more often. Internal mobility is retention by another name: people who can grow in place do not need to leave to grow.

27. Career growth opportunities are the number one reason people give for changing jobs

(Gallup)

Gallup identifies career growth opportunity as the top reason people change jobs. Read alongside stat 23, the logic closes: the thing that makes people leave is the same thing learning programs provide.

How important is career growth and development to employees?

4 in 10 employees have no career plan, and only 4% have a clearly documented path, according to Right Management's November 2025 career development research. The gap between how much employees care about growth and how little structure they get is the clearest theme in the newest data.

28. 4 in 10 employees have no career plan

(Right Management / ManpowerGroup, 2025)

Right Management's global research, released by ManpowerGroup in November 2025, found career planning is broken at scale. Training programs land better when they connect to a path, and most employees do not have one.

29. Only 4% of employees have a clearly documented career path

(Right Management / ManpowerGroup, 2025)

Even among employees who have some kind of plan, almost none have it documented. If your organization writes career paths down, you are in a very small minority.

30. Only 1 in 5 employees say their manager helps them map a career path

(Right Management / ManpowerGroup, 2025)

Managers are the natural owners of career conversations, and four out of five are not having them. Career development is being left to the employee by default.

31. Just 15% of employees report receiving clear career guidance from their organization

(Right Management / ManpowerGroup, 2025)

Organizational guidance scores even worse than manager guidance. Most employees are navigating their own development with no map from either level.

32. Only 35% of employees are aware of the development opportunities available to them

(Right Management / ManpowerGroup, 2025)

This might be the most fixable number on this page. Many organizations already have programs; roughly two-thirds of their people simply do not know about them. Communication is cheaper than new content.

33. Employees now prefer mentoring, internal mobility, and sponsored external courses over static training programs

(Right Management / ManpowerGroup, 2025)

The same research found learning preferences shifting away from static, catalog-style training toward development that is social, experiential, and tied to real career movement.

What skills are companies training for in 2026?

Human skills are the surprise of the 2026 data: demand for them outpaces demand for digital skills by 2.4x in North America, per hiring analysis covered by HR Dive. The AI boom did not sideline soft skills. It made them scarcer.

34. Demand for human skills outpaces demand for digital skills by 2.4x in North America

(HR Dive)

Communication, collaboration, and judgment are growing in demand faster than technical skills, even during an AI hiring wave. The more work AI absorbs, the more the remaining human work depends on distinctly human skills, and those are practice skills, not lecture skills.

35. 40% of today's skills are expected to become obsolete within five years

(Right Management / ManpowerGroup, 2025)

This is the urgency number behind every reskilling budget request in 2026. Pair it with the enterprise GenAI enrollment surge in stat 14 and the picture is consistent: the half-life of a skill set is shrinking, and companies are buying training accordingly.

What is the future of employee training?

The through-line of the 2026 data is a shift from courses to continuous, embedded practice. Buying patterns, employee preferences, and build economics all point the same direction.

36. Only 14% of companies plan to purchase a learning management system next year

(Training Magazine, 2025 Training Industry Report)

LMS purchase intent slipped a point to 14%. The center of gravity is moving away from big platform purchases and toward tools that improve what happens inside the learning experience.

37. 10% of companies plan to buy AR/VR training technology, up from 8%

(Training Magazine, 2025 Training Industry Report)

Immersive and practice-based formats are the growth category in purchase intent. Small numbers, clear direction.

You have probably heard the classic 70-20-10 model: the old idea that most learning happens on the job, some through coaching, and only a small slice through formal training. It is a framework rather than a research finding, but the 2026 data rhymes with it. Employees prefer mentoring and real career movement over static courses (stat 33), and buyers are shifting toward practice-heavy formats (stat 37). For where the delivery formats themselves are heading, see the biggest eLearning trends.

My own experience points the same way. Earlier this year I shipped a custom tool plus a lightweight learning experience that taught people how to use it in about two weeks. A traditional eLearning course series covering the same ground could easily have taken four months.

I can get this live in two weeks versus the eLearning courses that might take four months.Devlin Peck

I will go on the record with where I think this lands: AI practice layers will reduce build times and require less raw content in a course. Learners get to spend more of their time on practice and performance, and instructional designers can build these experiences in less time than traditional approaches take. AI is also making it possible for instructional designers to build real, functional eLearning without a full dev stack, and I want the connective tissue around it, like SCORM tracking, to be free and easy.

If the last decade of employee training was about delivering content at scale, the numbers on this page suggest the next one is about delivering practice at scale.

Read more:

The top 10 employee training statistics of 2026

How much do companies spend on employee training?

1. US training expenditures rose nearly 5% to $102.8 billion

2. Large companies budget $11.7 million a year for training on average

3. Companies spent an average of $874 per learner, up from $774 in 2024

4. Employees received an average of 40 hours of training in the past year

5. Small companies spent $1,091 per learner, more than double the $468 at large corporations

6. Small companies account for almost one-third of total US training spend

7. Services organizations delivered the most training, averaging 51 hours per employee

8. The average training staff payroll at large companies is $4 million

How does employee training affect productivity and business results?

9. Companies that invest strategically in development report 11% greater profitability

10. Only 36% of organizations qualify as career development champions

11. 60% of organizations with high-quality L&D report improved employee engagement

12. 51% of organizations reported revenue increases of 10% or more after adopting generative AI

What are the top AI training statistics?

13. Generative AI course enrollments grew 195% year over year

14. Enterprise GenAI enrollments grew 234% year over year

15. 71% of L&D professionals are experimenting with or integrating AI

16. Roughly 7 in 10 workers have had no formal AI training

17. Only about a third (34%) of organizations have a policy on generative AI use

18. Almost half of employees admit to using AI at work inappropriately

19. 92.1% of hiring managers expect AI to impact their learning team within 12 months

20. 89.2% of hiring managers believe AI is unlikely to shrink their learning team

21. Branching complexity is the hardest part of building scenario-based training, per a poll of a few hundred workshop attendees

22. More than 1,600 instructional designers are building AI simulations on devlin.ai

How does training affect employee retention?

23. 88% of organizations are concerned about retention, and learning is their top strategy for it

24. Organizations that invest strategically in development are twice as likely to retain employees

25. 59% of organizations with high-quality L&D report improved retention

26. 54% of organizations with high-quality L&D report improved internal mobility

27. Career growth opportunities are the number one reason people give for changing jobs

How important is career growth and development to employees?

28. 4 in 10 employees have no career plan

29. Only 4% of employees have a clearly documented career path

30. Only 1 in 5 employees say their manager helps them map a career path

31. Just 15% of employees report receiving clear career guidance from their organization

32. Only 35% of employees are aware of the development opportunities available to them

33. Employees now prefer mentoring, internal mobility, and sponsored external courses over static training programs

What skills are companies training for in 2026?

34. Demand for human skills outpaces demand for digital skills by 2.4x in North America

35. 40% of today's skills are expected to become obsolete within five years

What is the future of employee training?

36. Only 14% of companies plan to purchase a learning management system next year

37. 10% of companies plan to buy AR/VR training technology, up from 8%

Sources