Global hiring is entering a new phase—one defined less by cost savings and more by talent competition, AI-driven roles, and workers asserting financial autonomy.
That’s the core message from Deel’s 2025 State of Global Hiring Report, one of the largest datasets ever assembled on cross-border employment. The report analyzes workforce trends from more than one million workers across 37,000 companies in over 150 countries, offering a detailed view of how global work is evolving in the age of remote collaboration and AI.
The findings point to four major shifts reshaping the global labor market: the explosive rise of AI training jobs, startups hiring internationally for specialized expertise rather than cheaper labor, a gradual migration of remote workers back toward cities, and a growing trend of contractors protecting their income through USD and stablecoin payments.
Taken together, the trends suggest the future of work will be not only more global—but also more complex.
AI Is Creating an Entirely New Workforce
Despite ongoing debates about automation replacing jobs, the data shows that AI is also creating new professions at remarkable speed.
One of the most striking examples is the emergence of AI trainers—workers responsible for teaching machine-learning systems how to interpret data, generate responses, and improve accuracy.
According to Deel’s analysis, more than 70,000 workers now train AI systems across more than 600 organizations, performing tasks that range from basic data annotation to highly specialized expert review.
Cross-border hiring for general AI trainer roles surged 283% in 2025, making it the fastest-growing international role on Deel’s platform.
These positions span a surprisingly wide spectrum of skill levels and compensation:
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30% of AI trainers earn $15–20 per hour, typically performing annotation and labeling tasks
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19% earn $50–75 per hour for more specialized work
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6% command $100+ per hour, often providing expert feedback in fields like medicine, economics, or translation
Geographically, the workforce is heavily concentrated in the United States, which accounts for 58% of AI trainers globally. Other major hubs include India (7.2%), the Philippines (4.6%), Canada (2.1%), and Kenya (1.7%).
However, the data also highlights a persistent gender pay gap within the profession. In the United States, male AI trainers earn a median of $50 per hour, compared with $30 per hour for female trainers, largely due to differences in specialization and occupational segmentation.
The rapid rise of AI training roles underscores a broader reality: building effective AI systems still requires large numbers of humans working behind the scenes.
Startups Are Hiring Globally—But Not for Cheap Labor
Another myth the report challenges is the long-standing belief that international hiring is primarily driven by cost reduction.
Among nearly 100 venture-backed startups founded between 2020 and 2025 that raised at least $100 million, the data shows a different pattern entirely.
Instead of seeking lower-cost markets, these companies are increasingly recruiting from high-income countries with specialized talent pools.
The most common destinations for cross-border startup hires include:
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United Kingdom – 12.2%
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Canada – 11.9%
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Germany – 8.8%
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Australia – 5.8%
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Spain – 5.2%
In other words, global hiring among top startups is less about reducing payroll expenses and more about accessing scarce skills.
The majority of these hires fall within technical and growth-oriented roles:
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Software developers – 28%
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Tech sales – 6.2%
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Business development – 4%
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AI engineers – 2%
Interestingly, startups are 13.6 percentage points more likely to hire software developers internationally compared with small and midsize businesses.
But the data also highlights something that AI still struggles to replace: human relationships.
Seven of the top ten cross-border roles globally are sales, marketing, or customer-facing positions, reflecting the ongoing importance of local market expertise and cultural familiarity.
The Urban Boomerang: Remote Workers Drift Back to Cities
During the pandemic, remote work triggered a mass migration away from major metropolitan areas as employees sought more space and lower living costs.
But Deel’s data suggests that trend may be reversing.
Between 2021 and 2022, the average distance between cross-border employees and major urban centers increased significantly. Since then, however, the trend has steadily shifted back.
Each year since 2022, remote workers have gradually moved closer to major cities.
In the United States, cross-border employees are now located roughly as close to major metro areas—such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and San Francisco—as they were in 2021.
Similar patterns are emerging internationally, particularly around London and Paris.
The shift suggests that while remote work remains widely accepted, cities continue to function as gravitational centers for talent, networking, and career opportunities.
Rather than abandoning urban hubs entirely, remote workers appear to be finding a hybrid balance between flexibility and proximity to economic ecosystems.
Leadership Pay Is Rising—But Unevenly Across Regions
Compensation trends in 2025 show strong growth in leadership roles, though the drivers vary significantly across regions.
In the United States, project managers experienced the fastest compensation growth at 24.5%, followed by chief operating officers (21.6%) and CEOs (20%).
In Latin America, however, the growth was even more dramatic.
COO salaries in the region surged 99.8%, nearly five times the growth rate seen in the United States.
Financial analysts in Latin America saw an even more dramatic jump, with 195.5% compensation growth, reflecting increased demand for professionalized operational and financial roles in emerging markets.
These disparities highlight how global labor markets are evolving unevenly as companies expand internationally and professionalize management structures in high-growth regions.
The Rise of “Currency Hopping”
Perhaps the most unconventional trend identified in the report is what Deel calls “currency hopping.”
In economies facing high inflation or currency volatility, contractors are increasingly choosing to receive payments in U.S. dollars or stablecoins rather than their local currencies.
The shift is particularly visible in markets such as Argentina.
In 2025, more contractors in Argentina chose USD payments than the local peso, reflecting ongoing economic instability.
Globally, the U.S. dollar appeared in five of the ten most common country-currency payment combinations for cross-border work.
Stablecoin usage is also expanding rapidly. Argentina leads adoption, followed by Cameroon, South Korea, Turkey, Vietnam, Tajikistan, Sri Lanka, and Ukraine.
Even in countries that have transitioned to the euro, the trend persists. When Croatia and Bulgaria adopted the euro, many workers still chose to retain USD payments alongside the new local currency as a financial hedge.
The phenomenon reflects a growing willingness among workers to leverage global payment infrastructure to protect their earnings.
Cross-Border Hiring Is Still Driven by Geography and Language
Despite the rise of global remote work, hiring patterns continue to follow familiar geographic and linguistic corridors.
The United States and the United Kingdom appear in the top three worker-source countries for every major hiring market, highlighting the continued importance of English-language talent pools.
Different company types also show distinct hiring strategies.
Enterprises typically rely on Employer of Record (EOR) platforms to recruit compliance-heavy roles such as:
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Data analysts
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Fraud examiners
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Compliance directors
Small and midsize businesses, by contrast, focus more heavily on growth roles like software developers, sales professionals, and customer service specialists.
Fastest-Growing Industries in Global Hiring
Industry growth patterns also vary depending on the type of worker being analyzed.
Among cross-border employees hired through EOR structures, the fastest-growing industry is professional and business services, followed by government and nonprofit organizations and manufacturing.
When analyzing all worker types—including contractors—the healthcare and life sciences sector leads global growth, followed by real estate and construction.
Beyond AI trainers, several other roles are experiencing rapid international growth, including:
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Legal case managers – 164% growth
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Medical administrative assistants – 123% growth
These roles reflect growing demand for operational and administrative expertise in regulated industries.
What the Data Says About the Future of Work
For economists and HR leaders, the report’s findings reinforce a fundamental shift in the global labor market.
International hiring is no longer just a cost strategy—it is increasingly a talent acquisition strategy.
Companies are searching worldwide for scarce expertise, while workers are leveraging global employment structures to maximize income, flexibility, and financial stability.
According to Deel economist Lauren Thomas, the data confirms that competition for top talent—not budget pressure—is now the primary driver of global hiring.
At the same time, workers themselves are becoming more strategic about how and where they work.
The rise of currency hopping, stablecoin payments, and globally distributed teams suggests the modern workforce is operating within an increasingly borderless economic system.
For companies hoping to compete in that environment, flexibility may be the defining advantage—whether that means hiring internationally, supporting remote talent near major cities, or offering payment options that match how modern workers want to be paid.
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