For millions of U.S. workers, career security is increasingly being defined not by staying in the same job, but by staying relevant as technology changes. A new ETS Human Progress Report finds that 78% of American workers believe job security now depends on continuous adaptation, while 85% say upskilling and reskilling have become necessities. Yet access, cost, time and employer support continue to prevent many workers from acting on that recognition.
The U.S. workforce appears increasingly convinced that adaptability is essential to career survival. The harder problem is finding the time, money and institutional support to actually develop new skills.
That is one of the central findings of the 2026 ETS Human Progress Report — 50 States Edition, released by ETS after surveying more than 15,000 U.S. adults across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The report offers a broad snapshot of how American workers are responding to artificial intelligence, changing job requirements and the growing emphasis on continuous learning. Its findings suggest a workforce that understands the direction of travel but is struggling to build a practical route forward.
Seventy-eight percent of U.S. workers surveyed said job security no longer exists without continuous adaptation, while 85% said upskilling or reskilling is no longer optional. Yet only 71% said they are proactively developing new skills.
That figure trails the 77% global average and falls considerably below countries such as India, at 89%, and China, at 80%.
The disconnect is important for HR technology teams. Employers have spent years expanding learning management systems, talent marketplaces, skills inventories and employee development platforms. The next challenge is making those systems useful enough to support continuous workforce transformation rather than treating learning as an occasional compliance exercise.
AI is making that challenge more urgent.
U.S. workers estimate that AI currently accounts for about 26% of their work and expect that figure to rise to 43% within two years, according to the report. But exposure is uneven. Reported workplace AI usage ranges from 47% in Alaska to 18% in Maine and Wisconsin.
That geographic variation could become an important workforce-development issue.
Employees with greater exposure to AI may have more opportunities to build experience with emerging tools, while workers in lower-exposure environments could face a different risk: arriving later to the skills transition and having fewer opportunities to learn through everyday work.
The technology sector illustrates the psychological dimension of that transition. Overall, 58% of U.S. workers report a fear of becoming obsolete, or FOBO. The figure rises to 74% among technology workers and 73% in financial services.
At the same time, 54% of respondents say their priorities have shifted from seeking job security to staying relevant.
That shift changes the role of HR departments.
Traditional workforce planning often focuses on headcount, compensation, recruitment and retention. Skills-based workforce planning adds another layer: understanding which capabilities an organization has today, which it will need tomorrow and how employees can move between them.
Platforms from companies such as Microsoft, Workday, Salesforce and other enterprise software providers are increasingly incorporating AI, skills intelligence and workforce analytics into that broader model. The technology can help organizations identify capability gaps and recommend learning paths, but the ETS findings suggest that technology cannot solve the access problem on its own.
Cost remains a major obstacle. Sixty-eight percent of U.S. respondents say the cost of upskilling is difficult to cover, while 63% struggle to find time to learn while maintaining their workloads. Another 57% say employer support is difficult to obtain.
Credentialing shows a similar gap. While 67% of respondents are interested in credentialing programs, only 41% report having access to them.
For employers, that gap presents both a workforce risk and an opportunity.
If employees increasingly expect credentials to demonstrate practical skills, companies will need to decide which certifications, assessments and learning pathways actually have value. HR leaders may also need to integrate credentials with internal talent marketplaces, career frameworks and promotion criteria so that learning produces a visible career outcome.
The report’s findings around higher education point to another part of the problem. Sixty-one percent of employed U.S. college graduates surveyed said their university did not adequately prepare them for the workforce, while 90% of respondents said educational assessments should measure both academic knowledge and practical skills.
That is a significant signal for employers and education providers.
The traditional boundary between education and employment is becoming less distinct as technology changes faster than many formal curricula can adapt. Employers increasingly need evidence of what candidates can actually do, while workers need portable ways to demonstrate skills acquired through education, employment and independent learning.
State-level differences make the challenge more complicated.
Workers in Maine, Hawaii and Pennsylvania reported some of the greatest difficulties across multiple upskilling barriers. Alaska, the District of Columbia and Delaware reported fewer obstacles. Delaware led the states in proactive skill development at 89%, followed by Alaska at 87% and the District of Columbia at 83%.
The report also assigns the U.S. a 2026 ETS Human Progress Index score of 93.7, below the global score of 96.7. ETS says the index reflects perceptions around access to education, upward mobility and opportunities for upskilling.
The result is a workforce technology market increasingly moving toward skills-based talent management.
Learning platforms are evolving into career-development systems. Workforce analytics are becoming tools for identifying skills gaps. AI can personalize training and recommend development paths. Digital credentials can provide portable evidence of capabilities.
But adoption will depend on whether employers make these systems part of how careers actually progress.
ETS CEO Amit Sevak argues that workforce readiness cannot be treated solely as an individual responsibility. The report calls for employers to establish clearer credential pathways, governments to improve access through trusted credentialing partnerships and educators to incorporate practical skills assessment.
For HR leaders, the message is particularly direct: asking employees to “learn continuously” is not a workforce strategy unless employees have time, funding, relevant learning options and a clear connection between skills and career advancement.
The next generation of HR technology may therefore be judged less by how many courses or AI features a platform offers and more by whether it can help workers navigate a changing labor market.
The workers surveyed by ETS appear ready for that transition. The industry challenge is building the infrastructure that allows them to make it.
Market Landscape
The HR technology market is moving toward skills-based organizations, with employers increasingly attempting to map workforce capabilities rather than relying exclusively on job titles and traditional credentials.
The ETS findings reinforce the market case for skills intelligence, learning experience platforms, internal talent marketplaces, credential management and AI-powered career development.
They also expose a major implementation problem: employees cannot benefit from skills technology if learning remains expensive, difficult to access or disconnected from working hours and career progression.
This creates opportunities for enterprise HR platforms to connect learning, workforce analytics, talent mobility and credentialing in a single employee experience.
The competitive question is shifting from “Does the platform offer AI?” to “Can the platform help an organization continuously identify, build and deploy skills?”
That distinction will matter as AI changes job tasks rather than simply eliminating entire occupations.
Top Insights
- ETS finds 85% of U.S. workers view upskilling as necessary, yet cost, time and employer support continue limiting access to workforce development.
- AI already represents an estimated 26% of U.S. workers’ tasks, with exposure varying sharply by state and potentially widening skills opportunities.
- Fear of becoming obsolete affects 58% of workers, rising substantially among technology and financial-services employees facing rapid AI-driven workplace change.
- Credentialing shows a 26-point access gap, highlighting opportunities for HR technology platforms connecting skills assessments, learning pathways and career mobility.
- Workers increasingly expect employers, governments and educators to share responsibility for building practical skills and clearer pathways into future careers.
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