The global labor market is defined by tension: between resilience and stagnation, opportunity and constraint, optimism and fatigue. Drawing on data from the 2025 Indeed Workforce Insights Survey, this report examines how workers across countries, generations, and backgrounds are navigating a world of work shaped by slow hiring, rising costs, demographic change, and rapid technological adoption. Across these eight chapters, a consistent theme emerges — while workers’ circumstances and priorities vary widely, their expectations of work are becoming more complex, extending well beyond pay alone.

The findings reveal a workforce that continues to respond rationally to economic realities. Education remains a durable advantage, delivering higher earnings, lower unemployment, and greater access to training. At the same time, workers increasingly evaluate jobs as bundles of compensation, flexibility, stability, and meaning. Benefits such as health insurance and paid time off remain central, especially in countries where public provision is limited. And flexible work arrangements have become critical for retention — particularly for women and younger workers — even as their availability has stalled or declined in job postings.

This report also highlights widening divides in how opportunity is distributed. Migrants enter the labor market with optimism that often erodes over time as structural barriers persist. Generational preferences reveal mismatches between what workers want and what jobs offer, especially around remote and hybrid work. And the uneven adoption of artificial intelligence has created a growing split between workers who are supported, trained, and gaining productivity — and those who remain disengaged from both AI and career development more broadly.

Below you’ll find all eight chapters of our Workforce Insights Survey Report and you can download the PDF of the WIS report here.

Survey methodology:

Indeed commissioned YouGov to conduct nationally representative research studies among adults aged 18+ across eight markets– United States, Ireland, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Japan, Canada, and France.

Sampling was random and representative by age, gender, education and region in all markets, and by race (United States only), aligned to census population statistics from reliable external third-party sources. Fieldwork was conducted during the months of May and June of 2025, with a total of n=80,936 interviews globally, and a minimum of n=10,000 interviews per market. This sample size provides a margin of error of ±1% at the 95% confidence level within each market. Fieldwork dates and sample sizes by market: 

United States: May 8–June 9, 2025 (n=10,125)

Ireland: May 23–June 30, 2025 (n=10,004)

United Kingdom: May 28–June 13, 2025 (n=10,115)

Australia: May 30–June 30, 2025 (n=10,159)

Germany: June 3–30, 2025 (n=10,142)

Japan: June 3–26, 2025 (n=10,153)

Canada: June 6–30, 2025 (n=10,164)

France: June 8–29, 2025 (n=10,074)

The same census-based population frames used for sampling were applied in weighting to correct any imbalances. Final data was weighted within each market by age, gender, education, region and (in the United States only) race, to ensure representation to the true market populations proportions. Population frames used for weighting: 

United States: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2022

Ireland: Eurobarometer, 2023

United Kingdom: Eurobarometer, 2023

Australia: Pew Research Center, 2023

Germany: Eurobarometer, 2023

Japan: Pew Research Center, 2023

Canada: LAPOP, 2021

France: Eurobarometer, 2023